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HINTS TO YOUNG MEN 


FROM THE 


PARABLE OE THE PRODIGAL SON. 


THE 


REV. JOHN LEYBURN, D.D., 

w 

Of Baltimore. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATIi-SCHOOL WORK, 

No. 1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 

c im 3 




COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

The Library 
of Conor K gg 

Washington 


Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers and Electrotypers , Philada. 


TO 

THE MANY YOUNG MEN- 

RESIDENTS OF BALTIMORE OR STUDENTS FROM VARIOUS 
STATES OF OUR GREAT COUNTRY IN THE MEDICAL 
AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING— 

WHO HAVE WITHIN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS ATTENDED 
UPON THE AUTHOR’S MINISTRY, 


AND ALSO 

TO THE YOUNG MEN OF BALTIMORE ATTENDING THE SAME, 

ESPECIALLY THE SUNDAY-NIGHT SERVICES, 

JHIS yOLUME 

—ONE OF THE FRUITS OF THE LATTER— 

IS 


Affectionately Dedicated, 


















































PREFACE. 


On coming to this city twenty years ago to take 
charge of a broken-down congregation, among other 
devices to awaken interest was the suggestion — not 
very novel — by a venerable elder of a series of 
sermons to young men. The suggestion was not 
carried out, for the reason that the author, having 
had no special experience in preaching to this in- 
teresting class, doubted his competency. In the 
course of time, however, a number of young men 
began to attend the Sunday-night services, and 
they were sometimes specially referred to in the 
sermons. This, with the effort made to present 
subjects in a common-sense rather than in a 
scholastic or professional manner, brought, and 
has kept, such numbers of young men that they 
have become one of the marked features of the 
congregation — so much so that during the win- 
ter months, when the capacious church is full, often 
the large majority are men. The author ventures 


6 


PREFACE. 


this statement as a reason for the appearance of 
this volume, and as an encouragement to others to 
enter this important field of Christian work. 

The author hopes that in these “ Hints ” he has 
not taken undue liberties with the parable ; he has 
only endeavored to illustrate the Scripture words by 
the usual conduct of a dissipated young man. 

Baltimore, 1887. 


CONTENTS 


i. 

PAGE 

Life Under the Old Roof . ll 

II. 

The Prodigal and his Portion 33 

III. 

The Prodigal Enjoying Himself 57 

IV. 

Gathering Clouds 77 

V. 

Troubles in the Far Country 99 

VI. 

Coming to his Right Mind 119 

7 


8 


CONTENTS. 


VII. 

PAGE 

The Prodigal Returns Home 141 

VIII. 

Higher Light on the Prodigal’s Story 161 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF, 


“A certain man had two sons : and the younger of them said to 
his father , Father , give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.” 

Luke xv. ii, 12. 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


I. 

LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 

mHIS scene, though laid in a distant land and a 
remote age, we need not find much difficulty 
in picturing. In Oriental countries there is little 
change from one generation to another. The Pal- 
estine of to-day presents much the same aspect, ani- 
mate and inanimate, as in Bible days ; so that one 
of the chief items of interest to the stranger is the 
feeling that he is all the while having brought be- 
fore him tableaux from the Scriptures. The ances- 
tral abodes crowning the hills of Palestine in her 
palmy days may not by any means be reproduced 
in the downtrodden and desolate land of to-day, 
but the type is the same. We have the flat-roofed 
cubical structure of stone or plaster, remarkable 
especially for the absence of windows; the door 

or gateway wide enough to admit beasts of burden ; 

11 


12 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


clamps of the stiff bluish-green olive tree, and pos- 
sibly of palm, somewhat relieving the dreariness ; a 
veiled female figure bearing a water-vessel on her 
head approaching from a neighboring well ; and a 
little caravan straggling lazily along the rugged path 
that serves for a highway. In the adjacent fields 
are laboring-men in Oriental garb, their implements 
of most simple and primitive type. This particu- 
lar estate bears the aspect of more than usual thrift 
and prosperity for that day and that comparatively 
dull and quiet portion of the world. 

The proprietor has made the interior of his 
home accordant with Oriental ideas — the stone 
floor adorned with rugs ; a divan or two against 
the walls, and in the centre a brazen chafing-dish 
in which coals may be lighted in chilly weather ; 
simple hangings at the windows looking on the 
court or hollow square ; vines shading the outside 
of the windows as well as forming a canopy over 
the door ; and the structure including on its various 
sides not only the family residence and the servants’ 
apartments, but stables for horses and cattle. The 
home arrangements all look upon the court, the ex- 
terior having the appearance of being constructed 
for protection and defence, those times not having 
the same provision for security by bolts and bars as 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 


13 


in our more mechanical age, and being more liable 
to disturbance from marauders. 

The proprietor of this domain lives in an easy, 
dignified way and is cheered in the not very excit- 
ing life by a small family circle. The fact that we 
do not read of the wife and mother is not necessa- 
rily evidence that she was not living and attending 
to household duties, inasmuch as Oriental ideas, then 
as now, kept women in seclusion, especially among 
the more elevated classes. For the same reason the 
fact that daughters are not mentioned is no evidence 
that there were none ; sons were the chief object of 
family pride, and two of these had been given to 
this house. As we shall see, these two young per- 
sons bore to each other but little resemblance in 
character, and their histories were destined to be 
very dissimilar. 

The father and these two sons constitute what 
may be termed the dramatis personae of the sub- 
ject to which we propose to devote a few dis- 
courses, more especially confining ourselves to the 
younger of the brothers, now widely renowned and 
characterized, because of a most discreditable his- 
tory, as “ the prodigal son.” Our object is not so 
much to follow closely the minutiae of the narrative 
as to make it the framework around which to gather 


14 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


hints and instructions accordant with the leading 
idea and adapted to enlist the interest and to fasten 
the attention of young men on views of truth and 
duty such as may prove to them of permanent 
profit. 

We take as our topic for the present, “Life 
Under the Old Roof.” 

Life may naturally be divided into four parts — 
first, childhood and youth, the time of anticipation, 
within the home, uninitiated into responsibility and 
care ; next, young manhood, the time of temptation 
and exposure after leaving home ; thirdly, mature 
manhood, the time of trial and responsibility amid 
struggles and burdens ; and fourthly, the time of 
comparative rest and leisure when the evening 
shadows are gathering around. It is with the first 
and the second of these that at present we have to 
do. We come, therefore, to the consideration of 
home life. 

Home as a Training-School. 

Abundant are the schools where children may be 
educated. Often it is difficult so to decide between 
them, both as to the primary and as to the ultimate 
one, that the child may in due time enter the world 
to the best advantage. But how often it is forgot- 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 


15 


ten that the true primary school is the home — a 
primary school which seizes the immortal being at 
the earliest dawn of intelligence and trains for good 
or for evil both the mental and the moral qualities ! 
What in all animated nature is so much in want of 
knowledge and of training as the infantile human 
being ? Is there any creature, according to its cir- 
cumstances, so ignorant, so helpless, so much in 
need of watch and care ? It cannot walk, it cannot 
talk, it cannot understand language, it cannot sup- 
ply its own wants even as to what is vitally requi- 
site. It is a poor helpless, dependent thing, and on 
the course pursued by others turns largely its des- 
tiny. It has absolutely no acquaintance with the 
world into which it has come. Everything is 
strange. Even were the mind developed to some 
extent, if it could observe and decide, it has no 
powers. Physically as well as mentally and mor- 
ally it must be regulated and controlled by a will 
outside itself. Then how important the conditions 
surrounding the human being on its advent into 
this world ! for these conditions go far to determine 
its destiny for time and for eternity. It is but clay 
in the hands of the potter. Then as the intelligence 
begins to unfold and the capacity for knowledge ex- 
pands how largely impressions and ideas depend on 


16 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN 


circumstances either adventitious or arranged ! The 
child has to learn everything from others — habits, 
customs, language, for it cannot even speak. The 
language indispensable to communicating with the 
race to which it belongs it must acquire word by 
word. How truly is home a training-school — the 
primary school of all ! 

Parents, if they are what they should be, are a 
gospel to the child ; by them is largely fashioned 
that immortal organism the soul. How important 
their function ! How weighty the responsibility ! 
What immeasurable consequences result from the 
circumstances in which the human being receives 
his first impressions and takes his first steps on the 
road through time to eternity ! 

Judging from the ultimate issue in the family 
which we are to make our theme, it was a well- 
ordered house; there were good training and a 
wholesome moral atmosphere. But even the best 
home influences are not always productive of the 
best results ; they do not always neutralize and 
overcome the bad traits. It is not always true that 
with the best example, the best sentiments, the best 
moral atmosphere and the best religious instruction 
a waywardly-disposed boy can be prevented from 
becoming a prodigal son. Spite of kindly, loving, 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 


17 


gentle, prayerful, persistent care, sometimes it ap- 
pears that he must and will sow his wild oats. 
From under the old roof of our subject one of two 
sons steps out on the wrong road. 

Home as a Place for Enjoyment. 

Various elements go to make a rightly-consti- 
tuted home enjoyable to its inmates. Indeed, noth- 
ing has awakened more beautiful sentiment than 
home ; about nothing have poets sung more sweet- 
ly. What song of sentiment has won more univer- 
sal popularity than that whose theme is, 

“ Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home ” ? 

One of the poets has said, 

“ Man through all ages of revolving time — 
Unchanging man — in every varying clime, 

Deems his own land of every land the pride, 

Belov’ d by Heaven o’er all the world beside ; 

His home the spot of earth supremely blest — 

A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest.” 

As a place of enjoyment for its youngest mem- 
bers home has the special advantage that but little 
is requisite to give pleasure. Ignorant of the world 
and of its great temptations, its cravings, its ambi- 
tions, its contests, its jealousies and its hates, the 
2 


18 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


young are as yet free from the great disturbing ele- 
ments. Their expectations and demands are simple 
and easily gratified. Even exuberance of gladness 
and glee emanate from small material. With good 
health, congenial companions, simple sports, theirs 
are happy days. With relish and zest and rarely- 
failing appetite food is enjoyed ; and when the time 
for rest arrives, they lay themselves down to dream- 
less sleep. Such would seem the almost perfection 
of the human being in childhood. 

As childhood passes into youth and incipient 
manhood other sources for gratification are opened, 
but with these must also be encountered greatly- 
enhanced exposure, temptation and risk. The vig- 
or and the freshness of childhood have developed 
into the exuberance of boyhood and young man- 
hood ; the affections and the passions have gained 
strength ; the will has become more resolute and the 
disposition less tractable. The problem now is to 
bring this living material into control and subjuga- 
tion, so as to make life a success and not a failure. 
Questions as to duties and indulgences, as to obedi- 
ence and authority, as to which shall carry his point, 
father or child, as to the thousand nameless things 
where home government comes in, — how great the 
difficulties ! how momentous the responsibilities ! 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 19 


How often is the destiny of the young immortal for 
time and for eternity decided at this early period ! 

Another element often enters here — viz., paren- 
tal pride. If the boy expanding into manhood 
has qualities to recommend him as to appear- 
ance, intellect, manners, or whatever may render 
him a youth of mark, the parents’ pride is aroused. 
He is their hearts’ delight ; he is treated with defer- 
ence ; his opinions and his wishes are respected ; he 
becomes more and more the arbiter of his own 
course, until it is plain that the reins of authority 
have passed out of the parents’ hands. This is the 
time the mother takes the decisive step as to her son. 
Proud of him, she humors him, and makes no effort 
to curb his indulgences or to break his strong will, 
allows him his own way, no matter at whose ex- 
pense, and rather helps than hinders him in his 
devious and more doubtful ways. Poor thing ! 
She little thinks she is doing a work which is to 
fill her heart with sorrow and regret until her head 
is laid in the grave, and afterward. The mistaken 
kindness and the ill-starred indulgences are singu- 
larly unfortunate for this already pampered youth. 
His presumptions and exactions “grow by what 
they feed upon.” The entire household must more 
or less succumb to the young master. If not, if 


20 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


crossed in his purposes or wishes, no matter how 
unreasonable or audacious, he declares independence, 
speaks his mind freely and intimates that he will 
find quarters elsewhere. 

It is not impossible that our prodigal had made 
a discreditable history of this sort before taking 
his departure from under the old roof. He could 
hardly at a single bound have attained the height 
of presumption requisite for the demand for the 
portion of goods which would ultimately be coming 
to him ; he must have reached it by successive ag- 
gressions. Some commentators, indeed, intimate 
that the usage of the times sanctioned giving to 
sons their share of the estate whilst the father still 
survived, but of this there is no satisfactory evi- 
dence, and in itself the thing is highly improb- 
able. 

This youth was a striking contrast to the brother, 
but such is not unusual in families. Not uncommon 
is it to hear the remark as to the contrast between 
two brothers or sisters : “ You wouldn’t think they 
had a drop of the same blood in them ; they are 
totally unlike.” Some are restless, proud, irascible; 
others are gentle and amiable. Some are energetic 
and driving ; others are sluggish and heavy. 

The youth who furnishes the theme for these 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 


21 


lectures was endowed with a large stock of animal 
life, strength of temper, restlessness, warm passions f 
— one who felt that, though his home was good 
enough, yet it was too quiet and dull for a spirited 
young man. He hears the echoes of the far-off 
great world with its pomp and pageantry, its clamor 
and clash of enterprise and activity, and especially 
its pleasures, entertainments, revelries, tempting 
to a young man with his tastes, and he longs to 
be there. This commotion within him ultimately 
finds utterance. He approaches his father with the 
extraordinary proposition, “Father, give me the 
portion of goods that falleth to me.” He might 
as well have said, “ If you were dead, I should 
get a portion of the estate ; I have come to 
ask that you give it to me now.” If he had 
spoken out what was in his heart, he would have 
added, “ I want to have a chance to see what is to 
be seen and to enjoy myself — as is natural for a 
young man, you know — and that requires money.” 
The echo of the great world grows louder and 
louder, and he longs to be gone ; so the indulgent 
father gives him the portion. Everything is made 
ready for the journey, good-byes are spoken, possi- 
bly a shallow tear trickles down the ruddy cheek, 
and soon the old homestead is left behind, and 


22 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN 


the eager, impulsive youth is on his way to the 
far-off land. 


Home as a Place of Restkaint. 

In this case this element does not seem to have 
been so pronouuced as it might have been, else the 
presumptuous son’s demand would not have been 
acceded to ; he would have been relegated back to 
his proper place in the home economy, and would 
have had to “wait on Providence” for his portion 
of the goods, thinking to himself, perhaps, amid 
the trial of his patience, that truly “ the mills of 
the gods do grind slowly.” 

Order is Nature’s first law, order is home’s first 
law, and in every well-regulated home it is law. 
Eminently healthful and important is it that there 
should be government in a little community like 
the family, just as in the state. A state without 
rule would not be worthy the name ; it would be 
a mob. So with the home : there must be rule ; 
God has appointed rule. It is a despotism that 
God has ordained, not a republic. Parents are the 
authorized rulers ; born to rule, their will is law, 
and this by divine right. Families there are, in- 
deed — only too many — where this Heaven-ordained 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 


23 


system is set aside, but it is always at the expense 
of the happiness of the household. 

Order being the family’s first law, there is a 
place for every one, and every one should be in his 
place. Should this be without the consciousness 
of law, the offspring of love and cheerful habit, all 
the better ; but it must be there or there cannot be 
a happy home. Should there be selfishness, pre- 
sumption, ill-temper, willfulness, over-reaching, on 
the part of any one of the number, then authority 
must interpose, not only for the protection of the 
innocent, but for the welfare of the aggressor, who 
is not merely encroaching upon the rights of others, 
but also doing himself a stupendous wrong. Some- 
times God’s order is reversed. Sometimes a son — 
a wayward son — rules father, mother, brothers, sis- 
ters, every one, indeed, but himself. 

Some years ago, when living in another city, I 
had an old-lady friend who had enjoyed every ad- 
vantage — advantages of birth, of abundant means, 
of society, of life in foreign lands. She was a 
sweet, gentle, loving mother. The remains of 
beauty still lingered about her aged face. She had 
a son who had also had every advantage, but she 
had not trained him according to the principles we 
are advocating. She “ loved him not wisely ” and 


24 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN 


“ but too well.” She indulged him wellnigh to the 
utmost, and therein, as she had abundant reason to 
feel, the dragon’s seed she had sown brought forth 
both for him and for her a most abundant harvest 
of sorrow. The time came when from such hus- 
bandry the old almost broken-hearted mother was 
laden with sheaves of anguish and woe. I have 
seen that son when steeped in drink stand and 
curse her to her face. I have known her to sit at 
the window into the small hours of the night lis- 
tening for her prodigal’s footsteps, her doting heart 
still yearning over him ; and when at last he came, 
with his debauched, drunken breath he cursed her 
for waiting. 

Yes, order in the home is Heaven’s great law, and 
where violated, even if the parent be participator — 
as is but too often the case — the penalty comes, 
sooner or later ; and if later, it comes with the in- 
terest added. 

Do not understand me to say that childhood and 
youth should not evince life and spirit ; a little too 
much of the vital element may be better than too 
little. Horses, restive, spirited, champing the bit, 
fiery, may run away and sometimes do mischief, but, 
nevertheless, a spirited, high-blooded horse brings 
more in the market than does a dull one. The 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 


25 


great problem of the home is how to train and to 
make the most of the spirited animal, the young 
man. Subjection and order may seem hard at the 
time. I have no doubt there are young men to 
whom these words come who would feel it a 
hardship to belong to a household where strict and 
rigid rule prevailed. Yet take care, dear friend — 
take care. The time may come when you will find 
that it would have been good for you to bear the 
yoke in your youth, that not to have been restrained 
was your sore misfortune, and that want of law has 
made you cease to be a law unto yourself, until you 
are ready to curse the day you were born. 

If the history of these Sunday-night congrega- 
tions, with the great numbers of young men who 
have gathered here for so many years, could be 
written, what a book it would make ! How it 
would touch and thrill every reader’s heart ! One 
night some years since, after the benediction, I saw 
a young man standing in one of the aisles, evidently 
waiting for the minister. He was one, as I soon 
found, who had had good opportunities, though he 
had gone far astray. At this time he was de- 
pressed by the reaction from a “ spree,” and under 
this reaction he was ready to curse his bitter bond- 
age — to curse himself and the day he was born— 


26 


IirNTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


and he was now reaching out for some hand to 
help him. He never was effectually helped. I 
attended his funeral afterward. He was a prodigal 
son who did not return. 

Home as a Source for Memories and 
Impressions in After-Life. 

We may say we are not authors and never expect 
to be, yet in a sense we are authors, all of us. We 
are producing volumes written on the leaves of our 
nature, and written with such ink that all the waves 
that beat upon them afterward cannot w^ash out the 
words. More indelible are they than Assyrian or 
Egyptian inscriptions. The tablets, too, readily 
receive impressions. The impressions made in the 
home, recording home scenes, home joys, home life 
in various phases, are conspicuous. Early memories 
proverbially are the strongest. 

It has fallen to my lot to visit many lands. I 
have been from Finland to Africa and from the 
Jordan to beyond the Mississippi, but there is one 
little spot pictured on mind and heart which, 
after all, to the speaker has an interest found no- 
where else. It is the house where he was born, 
and where home faces and forms, though long since 
gone, seem still to linger, and the farm in the neigh- 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 


27 


borhood where his early boyhood sports were en- 
joyed ; and when he returns there now, when long 
years have passed, the old scenes will come up 
again. 

I say home as a source for memories and impres- 
sions for future life is a place altogether peculiar. 
I thank God that my early home was a well-regu- 
lated one — though it was motherless — and that 
there are no memories that bring shame in looking 
back to it. I trust it may be so with you, my 
young friends, when you come to have homes of 
your own, and, indeed, in the homes to which you 
now belong. I hope you will endeavor to contrib- 
ute your share toward their good order and happi- 
ness, so that no sad memories shall haunt you iu 
after-life. 

It is wonderful how home impressions and home 
scenes do remain even when the moral nature has 
been corrupted. All are familiar with the bad 
habits of Robert Burns. Some of his most beauti- 
ful lines — some which shine with lustre in the 
galaxy of his remarkable land — owe their charm 
to the fact that in early childhood he had received 
the impressions of a religious household ; so that 
long afterward, when throwing himself away and 
comparatively worthless, there came up in “The 


28 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


Cotter’s Saturday Night ” these bygone home 
scenes. Describing family prayer, the household 
gathered together before retiring for the night, he 
says : 

“ Then, kneeling down, to heaven’s eternal King 
The saint, the father and the husband prays : 

Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing 
That thus they all shall meet in future days, 

There ever bask in uncreated rays, 

No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear, 

Together hymning their Creator’s praise, 

In such society yet still more dear, 

While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere.” 

Prodigal as was this gifted man, he nevertheless 
drew his most effective pictures and his most touch- 
ing memories from the Christian home. 

Now a few suggestions as to 

The Principles which should Prevail in 
the Home. 

First, mutual love. The elder son in this house 
was probably amiable, considerate, ready to do kind- 
nesses to all, deferential not only to superiors, but 
to equals, with a heart true, sincere and affection- 
ate ; in fact, a good-principled, kindly, loving young 
man, quiet-mannered, perhaps, possibly not attract- 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 


29 


ing the stranger, for good, orderly people not un- 
frequently are very unobtrusive. But, different as 
the younger brother was, had he but possessed the 
heart of love, how changed would have been the 
family history ! 

Unselfishness ought to be another quality adorn- 
ing the home. This trait in the first instance was 
conspicuous in the elder son. His readiness to let 
his brother rule the household and to lead his father 
into the course adopted was perhaps eminently un- 
wise, but certainly was unselfish — a trait of char- 
acter rare indeed, but very beautiful, putting to 
shame those who (£ look upon their own things” 
alone, and not “ upon the things of others.” Truly, 
unselfish natures are a choice ornament. That was 
a beautiful compliment which I once heard a lady 
pay to a young man in this city. Speaking of him 
to me, she said, “ He has the sweetest heart I ever 
knew.” Natures such as that make home happi- 
ness. Not manners nor dress nor accomplishments 
nor talent nor culture can do this, but “ the sweet- 
est heart one ever knew ” can do it. The younger 
of these sons had a selfish heart. Neither claims 
of parents or of brother nor any other love could 
touch his cold, selfish nature. His main idea was 
self. 


30 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN 


Desire for the general goody also, should be char- 
acteristic of home. Home is a sensitive little com- 
munity, so compacted and so continuous that one 
member may seriously influence all. How do you 
make home attractive? By courtesy, kindness, 
considerateness, cheerfulness, lovingness, piety. 
But few elements, and they not costly, are req- 
uisite to make home the choicest place on earth. 
Let each, forgetting self, aim at the common 
good. 

Contentment is another quality requisite to home 
enjoyment. The want of this was the difficulty 
with our prodigal. He was not satisfied, and did 
not intend to be. He was bent on leaving, and in 
this state of mind no doubt made himself particu- 
larly disagreeable. Now, nobody claims that the 
son must spend his whole life under the old roof. 
No; even were he so disposed, Providence would 
soon say to him, “ Arise and depart; this is not 
your rest. Go out into the world and do your 
work. You are not to linger as a mere home- 
child, nursed and fed all your days.” With some 
sons there is this unbecoming disposition to linger 
in idleness, living on what they have neither sown 
nor reaped nor gathered into barns. Such young 
men should be turned out of doors and compelled 


LIFE UNDER THE OLD ROOF. 


31 


to earn something. Our young gentleman was the 
reverse of this class. He did not wish to stay ; he 
would only be too glad to be gone. Home is too 
dull. Let him be free ; give him his money. How 
many counterparts there are to-day ! 

Piety , we need scarcely add, is a quality essential 
to the highest and best type of home. Whatever 
the other qualities, this exalts, sanctifies and crowns 
all. It sheds a heavenly radiance over all earthly 
good ; it combines in itself, indeed, the essence and 
surety of all real good. Were you selecting a resi- 
dence for yourself and your family, if you had one, 
some things you would consider of great importance, 
such as good light, good air and a good outlook. 
What can so assure all these as the true, heartfelt, 
undefiled religion of the gospel? This sincerely 
introduced and allowed its legitimate and benign 
place and sway, you will enjoy the best light, for it 
will emanate from the Sun of righteousness. It 
will assure the most healthful and vitalizing at- 
mosphere, for “ it is the Spirit which giveth life,” 
and it will cheer and gladden the trusting soul with 
an outlook beyond the skies into its assured inherit- 
ance of blessedness and glory, “ incorruptible, un- 
defiled, and that fadeth not away.” 

Finally, the old home roof suggests our heaven- 


32 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


ly Father’s house on high, where his children may 
return to him after sad wanderings and find a sweet, 
sweet home where the wicked cease from troubling 
and the weary are at rest. 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 


“ And he divided unto the?)i his living 

Luke xv. 12. 


/ 


II. 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 

NE of the most critical periods in the life of a 



^ young man — not only in the life of a young 
man, but in that of any man — is when he comes 
into possession of property. If the amount be con- 
siderable, it at once brings him into collision with 
a powerful antagonism ; for our Lord has said, 
“How hardly shall they that have riches enter 
into the kingdom of heaven !” The question is to 
be determined whether he shall possess riches or 
riches possess him ; whether he is to rule, manag- 
ing and controlling them and rendering them in- 
struments for good, or they to control him and so 
carry him away as to imperil both his temporal 
and his eternal welfare. The misfortune is that 
to the young man often a very moderate amount, 
novice as he is in handling money, may seem a 
very large one ; so that the temptations are as real 
and as formidable with a comparatively small 
amount as if it were a fortune. 


35 


36 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


The term “ goods ” in the text represents personal 
or movable estate, possessions of value, an inherit- 
ance greater or less. Wealth is a recognized power, 
occupying the forefront among the forces controlling 
social position, influence, commercial standing, and 
even official station. In our precocious land young 
adventurers dash into business and sometimes win a 
measure of success by boldness in taking risks such 
as a lifetime could not have achieved in the old- 
established way, and the possessor of a fortune 
which may have grown gradually often has his 
hold upon it increased as it has swollen in di- 
mensions until nothing but death can relax his 
grasp. 

The two parties to whom our attention will be 
directed are unlike those just referred to. The 
prodigal does not acquire his money by daring 
speculations, and the father does not hold on to his 
possessions with a tenacious grasp. Better for them 
both had these been their characteristics. The young 
man asks his as a gift, and the father in his yield- 
ing generosity gratifies the request, unreasonable 
though it be. The former, indeed, would not seem 
to have craved a fortune ; perhaps this had never 
entered his thoughts. His tastes do not lie in that 
direction. He is not mercenary. He does not 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 37 


look so much at getting a great amount as at 
having means to meet the expenses of his foreign 
travel. He wants money in hand, and he wants 
no one to restrain him — not even to caution him ; 
a free foot and a free life and money to spend is 
his idea. Our young man, like many others, puts 
but little value on money on its own account — in 
fact, it is valued only as means to an end — so that 
when the objects craved are in prospect money is 
poured out like water. “ Come easy, go easy,” is 
the principle of such ; they squander it. An easy, 
unrestrained indulgence in what promises the de- 
sired gratification is the aim. 

Our young man was of this sort. He had tired 
of the routine, dullness and restraint of the old 
home. He wanted a wider field, and one where 
there would lie more to interest, more excitement 
and more enjoyment — something, in short, more 
suited to a generous-hearted young man. He 
wanted a wider field and the means to reap its 
gratifications, and for this he wanted his “ por- 
tion.” 

We propose to consider at this time some of the 
particulars in this part of our young man’s history, 
taking as our topic, “ The prodigal and his portion.” 
Notice, first, 


38 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


The Cherished Desire Becoming a Definite 
Purpose. 

This youth is going out of the old home into the 
wide world, with its bustle and stir, its pleasures 
and temptations. It will be a great change. 
Scarcely could there be a greater contrast than 
between the retirement, quiet uniformity of day 
after day in the home life, and the variety and 
excitement which await him in the “ far-off land.” 
His was somewhat the same experience as that of 
many young men of this day — not a few of whom 
hear my voice — who bid farewell to the uniform 
routine of country life to be thrown into the midst 
of the bustle, temptations and dangers of a city. 

The step about to be taken by our young man 
was probably not a sudden thought. His was, no 
doubt, one of those dispositions which crave variety 
and excitement. His elder brother — perhaps phleg- 
matic and of a more uniform and quiet tempera- 
ment — not only had no desire for the great world, 
but would have shrunk from it. Our hero wishes 
to “ pitch in ” and see what is to be seen, to enjoy 
what is to be enjoyed. The more of it, the better 
his taste is suited ; “ the more, the merrier.” No ; 
this thing of getting away is probably not a sudden 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 39 


suggestion. Many a time has it been pondered ; 
so prominent and constantly in his mind has it been 
that he might at last have said, “ It has been one 
of my day-dreams.” One of his day-dreams ! He 
longed to get away from home. The echoes of the 
far-off world had reached his ears and fired his 
fancy. The imagination pictured an ideal world ; 
he longed for the hour when the picture should 
become a reality. He might, indeed, take himself 
off without asking his father’s consent; he might 
leave the family to wake up some morning and 
discover that he was nowhere to be found. Hays 
and weeks might pass, and they would hear noth- 
ing to throw light on the mystery ; his disappear- 
ance might become the neighborhood talk. Such a 
course he might have taken, but this did not suit 
his ideas. He had too much pride for that, and, 
though he was destined in course of time to return 
with empty pockets, he did not care to set out in 
that impecunious state. He wanted to go as a gen- 
tleman, and must have the outfit and provision 
suited to that character. He must have money. 
Some one might have suggested, if cognizant of 
his plans, that if he wanted money he had better 
go and make it : “ Go to work ; do something for 
yourself. Ho anything but a mean thing. Go 


40 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


put your haud to the plough ; go dig. Show that 
you have somethiug in you, and that you can 
make your own way.” But this does not suit the 
high notions of our young man ; he is too self-in- 
dulgent for that — too indolent, too proud. 

Some who now hear my voice perhaps have 
also been longing to escape from the dull old home, 
and to get out into the stirring, driving world — the 
world of excitement and pleasure, the beautiful and 
varied world. It has been the one thing haunting 
the imagination and kindling the longings. You 
have been waiting for that day, and it has come ; 
now you have it. This is your first season in a 
large city. Take care that it is not the season that 
introduces you into the first chapter of the prodi- 
gal’s experience. 

Our prodigal must have money at once. The 
expectation of inheriting a portion of the father’s 
estate will not suffice ; that is too uncertain and too 
far off. Elder sons in England may negotiate large 
advances upon an estate coming to them at the 
father’s death, but such things were not in prac- 
tice in the prodigal’s days. Perhaps the latter 
would not have broken his heart with grief had 
the head of the household departed this life. It 
is not an impossible thing even now that the young 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 41 


man inclined to be fast reflects not unfrequently on 
the possibilities of the “ old man’s ” being removed 
from this world. It may even be that some be- 
come almost impatient that he lingers so long. It 
is hard to fix a limit to the outrageous concep- 
tions of a young man whose heart is fully set on 
“ reveling, banquetings and abominable” indulg- 
ences. To be forecasting the time when a vener- 
able father’s head shall be laid in the grave, so that 
the son may have a portion of his estate, would not 
be creditable to a young man setting himself up to 
be a gentleman, nor to any young man. The prod- 
igal is not exactly guilty of this, but he escapes it 
only by a proposition to the father to put him in 
possession at once of whatever portion would be 
coming to him when the head of the house is 
dead and buried ; provided he can have the money, 
he will not wish anything to happen to the “old 
man.” 

Possibly some who are not regarded as prodigals 
and would be far from recognizing themselves in 
that light allow themselves sometimes to sum up 
what would be their benefit from the decease of the 
“old man.” In case the subject should be referred 
to, such a son would not express himself explicitly ; 
it would rather be intimated that there would be 


42 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN 


something considerable coming to him some day 
But how much is in that “ some day ” ! How 
little sons realize the debt they owe to the “old 
man ” ! But for the “ old man’s 99 prudence and 
good management, how would the son have fared ? 
Where would he have been to-day? What his 
present circumstances? What his prospects for 
the future? It is not fair to be speculating on 
the possible length of the “ old man’s ” days ; it is 
not fair to divide his estate before the will has been 
put on record. But our prodigal will not submit 
to uncertain delays; he will “cut the Gordian 
knot” at once by putting on a bold face and 
demanding the portion which will be coming to 
him. 

Too much is it the custom with sons of success- 
ful families to be waiting for their portion of the 
father’s fortune, when they should be striving to 
make their own. The young man ought to step 
out into the world’s busy arena and say, “ By the 
help of God, I will try to do something for my- 
self. I will do with my own strong arm what I 
find opportunity to do. If I cannot do the part I 
desire, I will do what I can ; I will do anything 
rather than dawdle away my days waiting till the 
‘ old man ’ dies.” A true young manhood will 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION, 43 


find in the world a wide field of opportunity. 
Even though places may not open to others, this 
need be no discouragement to you ; they may open 
to you if you try. “ All things are possible to him 
that willeth.” I could give instances where young 
men have come to Baltimore, and, following right 
in the tracks of those who have “ found no place,” 
but reported all doors closed, have persevered and 
found employment, and are standing well to-day, 
thriving and valued in the houses where they were 
merely on trial at the outset. A self-made man is 
often the best type of man ; he has not been brought 
up in the nursery. Thrown on his own resources, 
he has been compelled to make his way over obsta- 
cles and discouragements which might well startle 
and appall the inexperienced. But he conquered 
them one after another until he stands master of 
the field. 

In great cities, whose names rank highest at the 
bank-board? Whose names are transmitted on 
business signs long after the individuals them- 
selves are dead, because of their having founded 
the house? They were not men born in luxury; 
they had not received in advance their por- 
tion of their fathers’ estate; perhaps their fathers 
had no estate. Who were George Peabody, Johns 


44 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


Hopkins — both of whom have sat in these pews — • 
and others whose names might be mentioned, whose 
monuments in the noble institutions they have 
founded are the pride of our city and more than 
ever entitle her to her favorite designation, “ The 
Monumental City ” ? Theirs was in every eminent 
degree a self-made history. Referring to their 
earlier days, they might have adopted the language 
of the apostle Paul : “ These hands have ministered 
to my necessities.” But poverty and the absence 
of advantages did not dampen their enterprise and 
energy, and their extraordinary success and the 
immortal lustre they have shed upon their names 
are but samples of what many times has been 
achieved by industry, economy, perseverance and 
discretion in this extraordinary land where our lot 
is cast. In what almost startling contrast with such 
as these are young men who, like the prodigal, are 
relying upon their portion of the fathers’ goods, and 
whose highest ambition is a full purse and a free 
field for sensual gratifications and pleasures ! 

This was a bold fellow, this young prodigal. He 
could not wait for the “ old man ” to be laid in his 
grave. That might be a long way off ; indeed, it 
might never come : the u old man ” might outlive 
him. So he makes up his mind to put on a bold 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 45 


face and to demand from the father the portion 
which some day would be coming to him. And 
how much a bold face does accomplish ! — often 
more than talent. Strange how human nature 
shrinks and yields before self-assertion ! Yes, 
confidence carries the day; it is the triumph of 
audacity. 

Some fathers, indeed, wrong their children by 
not giving them, when they are well able to do so, 
what is almost indispensable in helping them to 
help themselves. As a result the son is kept loiter- 
ing around home when he should be out finding his 
place in the world. One of the worst things which 
can happen to a young man is hanging around home 
with nothing to do. But some fathers are so covet- 
ous and so narrow and have so little far-seeing con- 
sideration for their sons that they are not willing to 
lend them a helping hand, even though favoring 
circumstances occur and though comparatively little 
would be required ; and when the help does come in 
the course of nature, it comes too late, for the son, 
spite of the failure to help him, and spurred to 
greater energy by that circumstance, has gone into 
the field and won success for himself ; so that when 
“ the portion of goods ” does at last reach him he 
does not need it. 


46 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


But our young man’s purpose in seeking a por- 
tion was not to enter upon an honorable pursuit. 
It was not that he wished to help himself in the 
busy toils of life; he is not helping himself, and 
does not expect to. He is bent on self-indulgence, 
and the two things he is now after are money to 
pay for it and a field where he can have full and 
unrestrained opportunity. 

One of the unfavorable characteristics of our day 
is the 

Decline of the Old-Fashioned Reverence 

for fathers and mothers, and it augurs badly for the 
future. Respect and reverence for years, and es- 
pecially for parents, are first-class elements of char- 
acter. To set aside their sweet, beautiful influence 
and lose their wholesome effects tends to undermine 
the whole future, and to bring failure and disaster 
where there might have been success ; and this 
sapping the foundations does not promise favorably 
either for Church or for State. In no country 
under the sun can there be found such precocity 
run mad as in our own. The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence seems to have been transferred from the 
political field to the family circle, until children 
exhibit a spirit of independence and self-assertion 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 47 


in striking contrast with the pleasing and whole- 
some subordination characteristic of other countries. 
The costliness and fashion in dress, the indulgence 
in fashionable amusements and the society manners 
and airs are often painful to behold. 

A few years since, when at the seashore, I saw a 
little girl of this class whirling in the round dance 
night after night until a late hour, and on going to 
Saratoga afterward I saw her whirling there ; and 
when, after two weeks, I took my departure, I left her 
going round and round. Though this was possibly 
an extreme case, yet the tendency to such neglect 
of right training is but too obviously a characteris- 
tic of the day, and from such households it would 
be only natural that there should go forth prodigal 
sons. Very possibly our prodigal had not been 
restrained at home. At any rate, we know that 
home was too narrow a sphere for him ; nothiug 
less than the wide world would suffice. 

Still, one would think that even with all the 
self-assertion and boldness of this young fellow he 
could not but have had some doubt of the success 
of his application, and perhaps it was with some 
trepidation that he introduced the subject. He 
might possibly have relied on the effect of a bold 
stroke, saying, “ Father, I have come to speak on a 


48 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


subject I have been thinking of for some time. I 
am getting to an age when I ought not to be treated 
as a child, and ought to be allowed some privileges. 
I have had no opportunity to see anything of the 
world, and I don’t think I could be satisfied to 
spend my life here. I wish, therefore, you would 
just provide for me and let me go. To be plain, 
give me the portion that will be coming to me from 
your estate.” Surely it was an audacious proposal. 
There was no need for his being kept in leading- 
strings at home always — that would not be best — 
but there is a wrong way of doing even a right thing. 

Then, as to seeing the world, at a proper time 
and in the right way it may be good for young 
people to see the world. If the youth had only 
asked that he might take a journey and see some- 
thing of the world, this would not have been un- 
reasonable. The world contains much that may be 
learned to advantage. Astronomically viewed, it 
may seem a small world, but regarded from the 
standpoint of our limited experiences it is a vast 
world — vast in fields for exploration and research, 
vast in intellectual and moral capacities, vast in 
nature, art, commerce, trade, and in innumerable 
varieties of activity and interest. It educates one 
to “see the world,” for education is not acquired 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 49 


simply from books and schools: it comes largely 
from practical observation and intercourse with 
men and things ; so that under proper restrictions 
it is sometimes wise to have a young man see the 
world. But let him not spend time and money in 
Paris and other gay capitals of Europe, seeing the 
things which he ought not to see and leaving un- 
seen the things which he should see. Let him see 
the world in a reasonable and proper manner, and 
then come home to work. It is a great exposure 
and trial to a young man to be away from the 
restraints of home and to be thrown into the fasci- 
nations and snares of a foreign city. Wonderful 
that so many escape unharmed ! 

Let us look next at our young man in his 

Unexpected Success. 

The abundant satisfaction and gratulations of the 
young fellow, no doubt, were quite conspicuous. 
He could not have looked for such success, so 
prompt and so complete — leave to go and money 
to pay the way. He has all he could have asked. 
The day-dreams which had so haunted him are 
about to be realized. The far-off land whose 
echoes had so fascinated him he is to see with his 
own eyes; its pleasures and varied attractions he 

4 


50 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


may himself enjoy. What he had pictured of life 
in the great crowded cities he may now share in 
reality. He can hardly believe it; it seems too 
good to be true. But the money is actually in 
hand, and all will soon be ready for the start. He 
is absorbed with the prospect. Actually getting 
ready to depart from this dull old place ! Getting 
ready to launch out into the great world ! 

Yes, the important step is about to be taken. 
Oh how important the step that takes a young 
man over the threshold of his home to encounter 
the novelties, the temptations, the sins, possibly the 
disaster and wreck, which form a part of the great 
world ! How much depends upon that first step ! 
What a history begins at this point ! How inter- 
esting and cheering sometimes ! How painful and 
sorrowful at others ! 

The value of the portion received is not stated ; 
no doubt it was considerable. The father evidently 
was a man well to do, and what he would have left 
the son at his death is now paid over to him — in 
what particular shape we can only conjecture. It 
could not have been real estate ; it could not have 
been the stock on the farm, nor the cattle grazing 
in the hill-country : these were not portable. 
Though there were no bills of exchange nor drafts 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 51 


nor express companies, nor any of the means for 
transmitting funds common at this day, there must 
have been some conveniences for this purpose in 
that halcyon period of the great Roman empire, 
of which Palestine formed a part. But, whatever 
may have been the precise shape the “ portion ” has 
assumed so that it may be used by the young man 
in his travels, it is his, under his unrestricted con- 
trol, and will lie ready for him to use in his antici- 
pated adventures and pleasures. Poor fellow ! lit- 
tle did he realize that the wealth he was so proud 
to call his own was to prove a heavy weight to 
sink him in seas of trouble. One of the worst 
things which can happen to an inexperienced young 
man is to come suddenly into possession of an estate in 
such shape that it can readily be turned into money. 

Pausing at this point in our hero’s history, let us 
now characterize his conduct. 

1. It was unfeeling and selfish. He may have 
counted himself a young man of honor; he may 
even have declared that he would part with life 
sooner than part with honor ; but where is honor 
now ? Where is respect for age ? Where is ven- 
eration for venerable character? Where is the or- 
dinary deference due from son to father ? Where is 
anything but a cold, selfish, unfeeling, hard heart? 


52 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


No matter what inconvenience his course may occa- 
sion, or how much heartache and sorrow his way- 
wardness may bring upon all in the house, what 
does he care? He is looking out for himself. 
How selfishness blinds the mind ! How it de- 
bases the soul, destroying its finer sensibilities ! 
The prodigal is fully set on taking off his share of 
the family wealth and enjoying it as he sees fit, no 
matter if the reduced estate should occasion incon- 
venience. What is that to him ? So not unfre- 
quently in our day there are members of a family 
who will have their own selfish gratifications, no 
matter how others may be affected. They will spend 
money, although money may be wanted for ordi- 
nary comforts, or even for necessities. They will 
indulge the appetite with the cup which steals 
away honor and happiness and debases soul and 
body, no matter who suffers or what may be the 
consequences. “ Give me my portion ! ” is their 
cry. Yes, and let the portion be large, no matter 
at whose expense. How the sinner goes in for 
indulging his appetite and passions, regardless of 
the trouble it brings or upon whom, though it 
break the wife’s heart, though it bring the dear 
old mother’s gray hairs with sorrow to the grave, 
though the venerable father, with weeping eyes be- 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 53 


holding his poor prodigal, exclaim, “ Would God 
I had died for thee, my boy !” or “ Would God 
thou hadst died and I had followed thee in child- 
hood to thy grave !” 

2. This young man’s course was presumptuous 
and arrogant . “ Honor thy father and thy mother, 
that thy days may be long upon the land which the 
Lord thy God giveth thee.” This is the divine 
statute regulating the conduct of children to par- 
ents, and almighty God has affixed to it the in- 
centive, “that thy days may be long upon the 
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Do 
we not sometimes see how literally this is verified 
— that disrespect and disobedience to parents do 
shorten life, that they lead to a disposition, charac- 
ter and habits so detrimental to health and long life 
that the evil-doers do not live out half their days ? 
Disobeying and dishonoring parents have proved 
the implements to lay them in an untimely grave. 
How often is it illustrated that compliance with 
the father’s and the mother’s faithful instructions 
would have been the salvation of the son for this 
world as well as for the world to come ! Parental 
restraint is wholesome. It is God’s appointed way 
for curbing the young and the inexperienced ; it is 
the divine method of training in their tender and 


54 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


formative period the mind and the soul for a blessed 
immortality • it is the Heaven-ordained school 
where are taught by loving hearts from experience 
the lessons of life. What folly to despise such in- 
structions ! how audacious ! 

3. The early conduct of this young man cannot 
but prove the seed of a fruitful crop of sin. With 
such tastes, with freedom and with money, it re- 
quires no philosopher to stand at this early point 
of his history and work out the sequel. Given 
these three things — freedom from restraint, abun- 
dance of money and a lustful nature — and you can 
predict the end. 

In conclusion, let me counsel young men to ac- 
cept the conditions ordained by divine Providence 
for their life. Though in your youthful days you 
do not like to be restrained, to be curbed where you 
would enjoy liberty, learn that “ it is good for a man 
that he bear the yoke in his youth.” The yoke may 
appear heavy, but you may live to bless God that he 
laid it upon you. It saved you and prepared you 
to be a man. Learn, also, that to break over the 
bounds which Providence has ordained for the 
family is to trample upon your own holiest ad- 
vantages. How much some of us have to thank 
the old home for ! How, after years have rolled 


THE PRODIGAL AND HIS PORTION. 55 


away and gray hairs have appeared, its scenes come 
back with tenderness and power ! How the mother- 
less family circle gathers once more, as if summoned 
by some magic wand from the long-gone past ! 
How the venerable father appears again, with the 
“ old family Bible that lay on the stand ” open be- 
fore him, reading the words of life ! and how he 
kneels with his motherless children, commending 
them to God as his Saviour and theirs ! 

I thank God that I did not go off as a prodigal 
son, and I wish you, young men, likewise to avoid 
this peril ; and, though you may, many of you, be 
far from the restraints of home and amidst the 
temptations and dangers of a great city, remember 
the pious home circle ; remember the prayers offered 
for you ; remember the hand that was laid on your 
head with Heaven’s benediction. Though as re- 
gards home you are in “ a far-off land,” do not be 
a prodigal son. 












THE PRODIGAL ENJOYING HIMSELF. 


“ And not many days after the younger son gathered all together , 
and took his journey into a far country 


Luke xv. 13 . 


III. 


THE PRODIGAL ENJOYING HIMSELF. 
WILLFUL, wayward son is a sad drawback 



■ x - 1 “ to the comfort of a family. No matter how 
favored otherwise, no matter what the attractions 
of the home, how ample the means, how large the 
circle of friends, how high the social position, no 
matter what their intelligence, taste, culture, and no 
matter how sincere the religious faith and hope, if 
there be one of the number whose temper is in- 
tractable, who has little sympathy with the home 
life, who seeks his enjoyments elsewhere, who keeps 
bad hours and is restive under restraint and longing 
to break away, — the fact of such a member in the 
family is a serious drawback to comfort. It is the 
“ fly which spoils the apothecary’s ointment.” It 
is the shadow which lies dark and heavy across the 
hearthstone. 

How often such shadows do lie across hearth- 
stones ! — oftener than the community around, even 
friends and near neighbors, know. Indications 


59 


60 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


there may be that things are not as comfortable as 
they-should be ; but if this be true, it is kept so 
quiet that no one can really say it is so. The 
parents are careful not to show that they are in 
trouble, though it is hard to keep the lips closed 
and to wear a cheerful smile and to show an 
interest in neighborhood affairs when there is a 
disturbance in home harmony, a skeleton in the 
house. Alas ! such experiences are not rare in 
this disordered, troubled world. How thoroughly 
and instantaneously the tone of conversation would 
be changed did the head of the troubled household 
tell in some social circle what disquietude pervaded 
his once harmonious, peaceful home, how things had 
assumed a serious aspect, how they were getting 
worse instead of better, and how relief seemed 
quite hopeless! 

For some time before, it must have been obvious 
in the home of the prodigal that all was not right. 
His want of interest in family affairs, his restless- 
ness, impatience and general ugliness of disposition, 
but too plainly told the story. Human nature then 
and now are the same. What it produces in one 
age it produces in another ; so that in all families 
from the same conditions there will be the same 
results. We have here, as we have said, a general 


THE PRODIGAL ENJOYING HIMSELF. 61 

ugliness of disposition. There would be also, no 
doubt, frequent absences, unaccounted for or covered 
over with improbable explanations — in plain lan- 
guage, lies — his associates and his occasionally ex- 
cited and unnatural appearance only too plainly 
telling the tale, and bringing the sad consciousness 
that to their little family is coming the terrible 
trial of a wayward, dissipated boy. No doubt 
they have struggled hard not to believe it, putting 
the best interpretation on suspicious conduct and 
making the most of the slightest favorable indica- 
tions, but the time comes when they can close their 
eyes no longer, and the sad truth has to be admitted 
that the boy who had been — in part, at least — their 
hope and pride is taking counsel with the ungodly 
or standing in the way of sinners or sitting in the 
seat of the scornful. 

In the case before us it is by no means probable 
that the demand for the portion of goods with a 
view of leaving home was an instantaneous sugges- 
tion. It was, no doubt, the outcome of what had 
long been brewing ; it was the culmination of irreg- 
ularities which had been becoming more and more 
conspicuous. And now the sad fact is only too 
true that the demand has been made and acceded 
to ; that the father, whether judiciously or in- 


62 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


judiciously, has yielded, that the living has been 
divided and the disobedient boy put in possession of 
his patrimony. Let us turn our attention first to 
the 

Preparations for Leaving. 

According to the text, there was no time lost : 
“ Not many days after.” The young man was so 
anxious to go and had been so long restive that 
when once the opportunity was given and the 
means secured you could not suppose he would 
tarry ; so that as expeditiously as possible he 
gathers all together and makes ready for depart- 
ure. He will be only too glad to bid farewell to 
the old home. However reluctant and tardy he 
may have been where privilege and duty were con- 
cerned, when there is a prospect of self-indulgence 
and pleasure, of liberty to do as he pleases, he is 
up and stirring, full of energy aud life, eager to 
be off. 

But, friends, he does not stand alone. His is not 
a solitary instance of the characteristic to which we 
have referred — where men are slow to listen to the 
demands of duty, but prompt, active, enterprising, 
at the calls of selfishness and pleasure. How slow, 
for instance, men are to do God’s will ! how, when 
the great Father of us all comes near and speaks 


THE PRODIGAL ENJOYING HIMSELF. 63 


to us, calling us to duty and to privilege — indeed, 
to the very primary obligation of all, that of admit- 
ting him to the supreme place in the heart — how 
we make excuses ! how we delay and hesitate and 
at last postpone indefinitely — perhaps, as it proves, 
for ever ! But when we have the opportunity to 
gratify our own selfish ends, then there is no delay; 
then we are at once on the wing, and the moment 
for action cannot come too soon. When duty and 
self-gratification come into collision, generally the 
latter wins. So this young man, inspirited by his 
heart’s desire, departs “not many days after.” 
Notice, too, 

The Completeness of his Clearing Out. 

He made ready thoroughly. When gathering up 
his goods, whatever they may have been, he made 
what might be called “a clean sweep.” He left 
nothing : “ he gathered all together.” Not part, 
not that which would serve him best in the far-off 
land, not merely what was most convenient, perhaps 
with the addition of some pet things or such things 
as he would not care to have come under the father’s 
eye, not merely what, perhaps, one would imagine 
he would take : he took “ all.” His selfish, grasp- 
ing heart would not leave a fragment. How mean 


64 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


is sin ! You may sometimes picture the enjoyments 
it affords, its banquets of sensual good, and you re- 
gard it as a glorious thing just to have unrestrained 
privilege, with none to molest or make one afraid. 
But you do not know how mean sin is. Next Sun- 
day night we may see how mean it was to the prodi- 
gal when it had gotten him off into a far-off land ; 
how it showed that there is another side to the sub- 
ject; how it deluded and cheated him first, then 
disenchanted and mocked him afterward. 

The prodigal gathered his all together, and was 
going with a purpose to stay. He had had enough 
of this old house, this strict regimen, this dull 
routine, the father’s eye and the elder brother’s 
demureness. These things did not suit a spirited 
young fellow like himself ; he was going where he 
could have things in a different way. He believed 
people had a right to enjoy themselves in this world; 
he didn’t believe in long faces and sanctimonious- 
ness. 

How truly this parable pictures human nature ! 
How it reflects back from bygone ages the human 
heart working as it does now ! How much is con- 
densed within this parable in regard to that strange 
thing human nature — its ignorance of its own high- 
est good and its perverse, persistent pursuit of what 


THE PRODIGAL ENJOYING HIMSELF. 65 


can bring only disappointment and trouble ! How 
with one accord men by nature strive to get away 
from God ! How uniformly, when left to them- 
selves, they take the substance the Father gives 
them — intelligence, the moral faculty, spiritual ca- 
pacity, in short, an immortal soul, with whatever 
of this world’s possessions may be theirs — every- 
thing, indeed — and straightway take themselves far 
away from the Author of all their mercies, the God 
in whose hands their breath is and whose are all 
their ways ! He has great blessings to bestow ; his 
benediction will bring with it all that is best for 
man here below and an imperishable weight of 
glory beyond the grave. But do men seek these 
blessings ? Do they even accept them when offered 
and pressed ? Is it their preference to be among 
the family of God on earth? No; like the prodigal, 
they take their portion of goods and journey off to 
seek satisfaction in a sinful world. How needful 
the admonition of the apostle, “ Take heed lest there 
be in you an evil heart of unbelief in departing 
from the living God ” ! Sinners have no conge- 
niality with God ; they do not wish to be where 
God’s presence is. If he does not depart from 
them, they will depart from him. 

Next let us look at the prodigal as he is 

5 


66 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


Off for the Journey. 

Had this young man been setting out to seek his 
fortune in some reputable way, even then so import- 
ant a step as that which was supposed to sever him 
permanently from residence in the household would 
have caused no little pain. The family, however, 
would have looked upon it as one of those events 
which in the nature of things must be expected, and 
they would encourage themselves with the thought 
that the sacrifice they were making was for his 
good — that perhaps a kind Providence would open 
his way to success, so that they might live to see 
him occupy a position of prominence and influence 
for which they would be abundantly thankful. But 
when a son leaves home with no such aspirations, 
with no purpose to engage in reputable pursuits, 
but solely to take his pleasure, it cannot but be 
matter of serious concern as to the final outcome. 
In case he should be spared to return how will he 
appear? What effect will his world-experience 
have had on him ? Will it have made him wiser 
or worse ? Will he come back to them prosperous 
and confided in, in every way changed for the bet- 
ter, or will he return with the freshness of youth 
replaced by the debasing evidences of a dissolute 


THE PRODIGAL ENJOYING HIMSELF. 67 


and sensual career, causing the hearts that loved 
him to sink like lead within the bosom as the first 
look discloses the transformation sin has made? 

Had our young man possessed the nature of 
some, we might have pictured him, when the last 
morning came, taking the last look at the many 
familiar things associated with his home life from 
the dawn of memory — the room which went by his 
name, articles of various kinds he had gathered to- 
gether, gifts received on birthdays or festival occa- 
sions, possibly some of the implements of his boy- 
ish sports stored where they were placed when the 
consciousness arrived that he must put away child- 
ish things. Possibly even our insensate young man 
could not have been touched by the last look at these 
tokens of what were now to be more than ever by- 
gones. Then come those other last things — the last 
night he is to sleep under the old roof, the last meal, 
the last embrace, the last sad word, “ Farewell.” 
How many a mother’s heart has been wrung with 
anguish by such partings with her boy, with regard 
to whom she felt that there was more to fear than 
to hope, and how even the old father’s furrowed 
cheeks have run down with tears as with stammer- 
ing lips he tried to speak the parting blessing ! 
Our poor heartless, selfish youth may have been 


63 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


moved to tears in the leavetaking. Even hardened 
sinners steeped in sin sometimes give evidence that 
beneath all their guilt and corruption there are 
tender places in their hearts. Sometimes those 
who have been long years plunged in dissipation 
and vice, until you would think there could not be 

“A rose of the wilderness left on the stock 
To tell where the garden had been,” 

when kindly approached in their sober, rational 
moments show the tenderness of a little child. 
They will tell you, too, that the first step in the 
downward road which has brought them to what 
they are was the step out of the old home. 

As the prodigal moves off and waves the last 
adieu, he takes his farewell view of the home with 
its inmates gazing after him, and turns to meet new 
scenes and make an eventful chapter in his history. 
That one step changes everything. He leaves all 
he has been familiar with ; henceforth all will be 
new and strange. His connections and associates 
have been honorable and respectable ; he must find 
new ones now : what will these be ? He has been 
accustomed to a regular, quiet routine, with the 
wholesome restraints of a well-regulated family. 
These were proper and for the welfare of the house- 


THE PRODIGAL ENJOYING HIMSELF. 69 


hold, and they were enforced. Good moral conduct, 
respect for the Sabbath, attendance on religious serv- 
ices, were no doubt required. Now things are to 
be different. From the moment he steps into the 
wide, wide world the fixed regimen ceases. No 
father, no mother, no well-known friends, control 
him. He is his own master, free to do as he will, 
go where he will, associate with whom he will and 
enjoy himself as he will. So you see that between 
the inside of the old home and the outside there is 
a vast difference. He is not only without the re- 
straints to which he has been accustomed, but he 
is where he must form his own plans and decide 
for himself what he is to do. 

This stepping out into the great world and being 
so completely and so suddenly thrown upon one’s 
self makes a great change. It is a crisis. How im- 
portant are right influences for young men fresh 
from their homes thrown into the heart of a great 
city ! Deprived as they are of home surroundings, 
they need special counsel in the house of God — should 
be made to feel that they are thought of and cared for. 

Fascinations of the Far Country. 

The text does not state what was the “ far coun- 
try” to which the prodigal went. You and I can 


70 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


readily tell where we should probably have gone 
had we lived in that day and land and been setting 
off on a similar errand. All-conquering Rome was 
then in the midst of her glory. Tiberius Caesar 
was on the throne with the world prostrate at his 
feet. The Imperial City sat in regal splendor on 
her seven hills, adorned and enriched with the 
spoils of her widespread victories. Canaan was 
one of the subjugated and tributary provinces. As 
there was necessarily constant intercourse with the 
Imperial City, what so natural as that a young 
man athirst for worldly pleasures should make his 
way thither? Had he done so, he would have 
been fascinated with the first visions of the centre 
of the great empire. The Bay of Naples and Ve- 
suvius were as bewitching as now, and Hercula- 
neum and Pompeii, not yet buried beneath ashes 
and lava, stood arrayed in that exquisite taste and 
beauty whose relics the world admires and imitates 
to-day. Judging from the unspeakably depraved 
habits of their inhabitants, illustrated by the relics 
in bronze and stone and fresco still remaining, these 
cities would have been a paradise for a young man 
such as our prodigal on his first errand after sensual 
pleasures. The foretastes at these way-stations 
would have prepared him for the loaded banquet- 


THE PRODIGAL ENJOYING HIMSELF. 71 


tables of the Imperial City, into whose bosom a 
conquered world had poured her treasures and 
her vices. What wonder and delight must have 
thrilled an unsophisticated young man fresh from 
a quiet country life when the uplifted curtain dis- 
closed the mistress of the world amid her dazzling 
glories ! — temples, palaces, triumphal arches, rising 
from amidst vistas of streets rich in architecture 
and art, theatres and amphitheatres, chiefest among 
them the grand Coliseum with its eighty thousand 
spectators, including emperors, nobles, warriors, 
statesmen, orators, the wealth and the beauty of the 
world’s capital, gazing with enthusiasm and with 
shouts of rapturous applause at the contests of gladi- 
ators with wild beasts and with one another in the 
bloody arena. 

Amid this great carnival of sense and sin what 
must be the surprise and enchantment of an inex- 
perienced young man upon whom all this bursts 
with the charm and force of novelty ! How he 
wonders that all the world is not flocking hither ! 
How open he is to the first whisper of temptation ! 
How swift his unaccustomed, unguarded feet to run 
into evil ! How the siren’s voice is transformed 
into fascinating music and the house of shame into 
a palace of delight ! How readily he falls into the 


72 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


fowler’s snare ! How first acquaintances — on which 
so much depends — are those devil’s scouts ever on 
the watch for fresh victims ! How readily he is 
introduced to what in his credulity he accepts as 
choice society — the flashy gentry where the wine 
flows free and games are exciting and betting runs 
high, or where gaudy women appear in the auda- 
cious abandon of the lascivious dance ! To such a 
one as our prodigal this would have seemed Elys- 
ium indeed. All that imagination had pictured 
has fallen short of the reality. The patrimony re- 
ceived from his father supplies the needful means, 
and without delay he is borne away on the tide of 
enchantment. 

Perhaps, young friends, some of you coming 
from rural homes have been thrown into tempta- 
tions in their way as fascinating and dangerous to 
you. Posters, pictorial and otherwise, have greeted 
you almost from your arrival with solicitations to 
spectacular displays, incentives and excitants to im- 
morality and vice, recruiting-agencies for corruption 
and for hell. Even, indeed, in private mansions, 
amid festal scenes, unsophisticated eyes, unused to 
the mazes of the waltz, might be startled by the 
familiarities, the embraces, the equivocal postures, 
between the sexes. Had such liberties been taken 


THE PRODIGAL ENJOYING HIMSELF. 73 


ill your rural region, there would have been trou- 
ble in the house. 

One of the circumstances ministering to the peril 
of young men coming to a strange city is that they 
are unknown. Not a few persons who fain would 
go into sin are restrained by the fact that they are 
well known, and that too much is at stake, as to 
employment, prospects and good name, for them to 
run the risk of being blackened by discovery in 
vicious indulgences or amid depraved associations. 
But for the young man who comes a stranger to a 
strange city there can be no such protective policy. 
Who knows him? Who cares for him? Who 
would concern themselves as to whether he does 
good or evil? How important that virtue and 
religion should seek out the friendless young 
stranger and show him kindness and strive to 
help him on in every good way ! How admira- 
ble and needful a work Young Men’s Christian 
Associations may accomplish ! How worthy are 
they of the talent and the most influential co-op- 
eration in the wide field they are designed to oc- 
cupy ! 

The only other attraction in the “ far-oif land v 
which we mention is that there is no fastidious- 
ness or scruple. Conscience is not to be spoken 


74 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


of ; the only thing to be avoided is sanctimonious- 
ness, narrow-mindedness. You must not talk on 
certain subjects, such as dying or the possibilities 
of another world or the judgment-day, or you 
must learn, in case these should be mentioned, to 
treat them patronizingly, or perhaps humorously. 
I have sometimes seen in newspaper notices of 
contests of agility the newly-devised term “go-as 
you-please.” Well, that is the idea in the prodi- 
gal’s life of pleasure — go as you please ; think as 
you please ; speak as you please ; do as you please ; 
enjoy yourself as you please. This is the usage in 
the far-off land. I once heard a man who had 
spent much time in Paris say, “ Paris is the most 
natural place in the world.” He meant that things 
are on the “ go-as-you-please ” system. Put up the 
brakes, crowd on the steam and drive ahead. It is 
a down-grade all the way. 

I conclude with a few inferences. 

1. Leaving the parental roof is a step which no 
young man should take without considering the 
responsibilities and possible consequences. Where 
Providence in the shape of necessity or wise enter- 
prise indicates the movement, the way is clear ; but 
if a young man proposes to leave his home simply 
because he wishes a free foot and liberty to “ enjoy” 


THE PRODIGAL ENJOYING HIMSELF. 75 


himself as he sees fit, he had better pause before 
taking the step. He may find to his shame and 
sorrow, when too late, that on crossing the home 
threshold he left behind not only the truest and 
best friends he was ever to know, but also purity, 
honor, respectability and all that makes life worth 
living. 

2. The conditions under which a young man bids 
farewell to home often furnish a good criterion 
whereby to foretell his future. If for duty, for 
improvement, for honorable pursuits, to do some- 
thing in life, to make a man of himself, then we 
may augur favorably ; but if his motive be to es- 
cape wholesome restraint and to enjoy his pleasures, 
then no good need be anticipated. It will be but 
the old story over again, the prodigal son re-enacted 
with the prodigal's penitence and successful return 
left out. Many a young man leaving his home to 
seek his fortune and to make his way in the world 
has won a noble success. Nothing can be more 
commendable than for one with no cheering pros- 
pects and no hand to help, relying only upon him- 
self and upon his God, to go into the world's great 
field and carve for himself fortune, honor, fame 
and usefulness. 

3. Apparent triumph over obstacles which stand 


76 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


in the way of gratifying wishes, though seemingly 
a success, often proves a disappointment and disas- 
ter. The first experiences were, no doubt, all the 
prodigal anticipated, and more. But his pleasures 
were to prove “ a prelude to his pains they were 
but the devil's bait to lure him into sin, sorrow and 
shame. Ordinarily a father's judgment is far safer 
than a young man's freaks and fancies. Ponder 
his words. 

4. Finally, leaving our heavenly Father's gra- 
cious, loving home is by nature the discredit of us 
all. In this particular we all stand in the same 
category. “ We have all gone astray.” Each has 
gone his own way, but all have left the paths of 
righteousness and peace. Thanks be to God, if we 
have returned as penitent prodigals, we have found 
the door open and are once more happy in the 
Father's love! 


GATHERING CLOUDS, 


“ And when he had spent all, there arose 
that land ; and he began to be in want." 


a mighty famine in 


Luke xv. 15. 


IV. 

GATHERING CLOUDS. 



UDGING from a casual and superficial view of 


this young man’s condition, he would have been 
considered one of the favored. Had he lived in 
this day and come as a stranger into one of our 
communities, he would probably have received at- 
tention and have been treated with consideration. It 
is fair to presume that he was not lacking in edu- 
cation and manners. He had enjoyed the advan- 
tages of people in good circumstances. He had 
money. Why should not the doors be open to 
him ? Possibly his society was sought for ; possibly 
he could have married well. Though after a while 
there might have been “ irregularities ” in his way 
of life, though some even spoke of him as “ a fast 
young man,” yet how easily such things are con- 
doned, and how many will be ready to look on the 
best side and to say that “ he is only sowing his 
wild oats,” that after marrying he will give this up 
and settle down, a steady, substantial man ! 


79 


80 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN 


But such anticipations were not destined to be 
realized in this case — at least, not as suggested — 
nor are they often realized in similar cases now. 
^ There is such a thing as venturing too far toward 
' i the brink of the cataract, and, even though there 
may be a struggle to stem the force of the water 
and escape, the current is too violent and the victim 
( is carried over. Young men who will take counsel 
of appetite and passion, and will enjoy themselves 
in what the world terms pleasure, may turn a deaf 
ear to the faithful, friendly warnings, may close 
their eyes to the risks and perils of their course, 
but this does not avert the consequences. Those 
who sow seed should expect a harvest, and those 
who sow in the fields of sin and vice will assuredly 
gather their harvest. Sooner or later they will 
return bringing their sheaves with them, and sor- 
rowful sheaves will they be. Our young man, 
with his ardent, willful nature, his freedom to do 
as he pleases, his hankering for the pleasures of sin, 
the opportunities and constant temptations to in- 
dulgence, and his as yet abundant means to meet 
the expenses of this never economical life, had 
dashed into the arena with an abandon probably 
rarely surpassed even in the far-off land. That 
this could not last long was sufficiently obvious. 


GATHERING CLOUDS. 


81 


“ The pleasures of sin,” says the Bible, “ are but i 
for a season;” and when prosecuted with such 
“ excess of riot,” the crisis must be hastened, so 
that after pouring out his money in “ riotous liv- 
ing ” and keeping company with “ harlots,” we are 
not surprised to read that he “ had spent all and 
began to be in want.” 1 

We come now to notice the prodigal in his 
changed condition. Our subject will be the prodi- 
gal’s 

Troubles in the Far Country. 

1. How great the change coming over his ex- 
perience! At the outset his was a hilarious life. 
The field was wide and spread open before him, 
with none to molest. Why should he not have 
a “ good time”? And he did. He may have 
written glowing descriptions to some friend of his 
own age, pitying him in his dull, humdrum life { 
and painting in glowing colors festive scenes which | 
were an every-day thing with him. , 

But, after all, we are so constituted that the soul 
will sometimes sit in judgment upon itself. Our 
Creator has erected a tribunal within which decides 
questions of right and wrong — a tribunal before 
which, when summoned, we cannot but put in 
appearance, and before which the guilty one must 
6 


82 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


perform the unwelcome duty of arraigning, convict- 
ing and condemning himself. The prodigal, for 
J instance, after having exhausted some scene of 
dissipation and debauchery, becomes thoughtful. 
Memory recalls the past — his strikingly better 
training, the comparative innocence of his former 
life in contrast with these days and nights of sin — 
and the question will arise, “Is this riotous way 
the best way? Will it pay in the long run ? Is it 
wise?” Accustomed as he has been. to moral and 
religious surroundings and with the impressions of 
faithful home teachings still unobliterated, it is im- 
possible but that serious reflection will come ; and 
as memory recalls the old home people he cannot 
but ask himself what they would think if they 
knew all this. 

But such thoughts are disturbing ; it will not do 
to indulge them unless he is ready to change his 
kind of life. So long as this continues, the less of 
such thinking, the more comfort. The world, too, 
has its pleasures; why shouldn’t he enjoy his 
share? Now, when he is young, is the time; after 
a while, when the zest of youth has passed, when 
he has become satiated, he will settle down. 

2. There are certain other sequences of sinful 
pleasures which the prodigal probably would not 


GATHERING CLOUDS. 


83 


relish. The constitution of his nature, even physi- 
cally, plays an important r6le in this serious life- 
drama. The principle of compensation obtains as 
to both the moral and the physical being. Where 
there has been waste, there must be repair; where 
the drafts upon the store of health and vigor have 
been excessive, the diminished capital must be re- 
placed, or suffering or bankruptcy and ruin will 
ensue. Go on with the drafts, and the dreaded 
settling-day will come. Yes, it is a law of man’s 
nature that if he exacts beyond a rational measure 
he will surely suffer for it. The reaction must 
come when he has been straining and pushing mat- 
ters to an extreme. Indeed, there is a twofold com- 
pensation involved — the moral and the physical; 
for it is not only self-condemnation and remorse 
which come upon the stage as the after-piece to the 
revel and debauch — the self-reproach, the self-con- 
tempt and the disgust — but it is the entire physical 
nature disturbed, nerves unstrung, and with these 
everything unstrung, the entire organization out of 
harmony — no normal, healthful action, but ennui , 
headache, indigestion, the flushed face and the hot, 
feverish tongue. Body and soul on the rack, often 
the poor victim wishes he were dead, and often at 
this stage in the sad and humiliating experience, 


84 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


poor creature! with his own hand he puts an end 
to his miserable days : 

“ Anywhere, anywhere, out of the world.” 

Friends, is this what you call pleasure ? If so, 
deliver me from a life of pleasure. Pleasure may 
have its enticing draughts at first, but in the bottom 
of the cup there are wormwood and gall. Yes, 

“ Each pleasure hath its poison too, 

And every sweet a snare.” 

Is it strong drink and the wine-cup ? Hear the 
word of God : “ Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? 
who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who 
hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of 
eyes ? They that tarry long at the wine. ... At 
the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like 
an adder.” Is it the “ strange woman”? “Let 
not thine heart,” saith the wise man, “ incline unto 
her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath 
cast down many wounded ; yea, strong men have 
been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, 
going down to the chambers of death.” 

Possibly — probably — when the reaction had come 
or in sober, serious moments, such as must some- 
times visit even the dissipated and dissolute, our 


GATHERING CLOUDS. 


85 


poor prodigal may have asked himself, “ Would it 
not have been better to have stayed in the old home ? 
Would it not have been better to have taken life 
rationally, to have enjoyed its comforts and satis- 
factions quietly ?” This question, upon the whole, 
perhaps he decides affirmatively ; for he cannot 
altogether blot out the remains of early teachings. 

3. It is obvious that the society the prodigal is 
in will not bear dose scrutiny. He cannot but see this. 
However blinded by the witcheries of what may have 
seemed free life at the outset, he must sooner or later 
discover that underneath the thin outside coveriug 
is corruption. At first the society was most agree- 
able — so different from the dullness of his old asso- 
ciates, so free, so cultivated, so manly, so generous. 
How ignorant he has been ! How many things 
they know ! But he will soon learn. Yes, he will 
surely learn much, and no little to his sorrow. As 
he becomes more familiar with the circle of these 
young men of the world, some of the varnish and 
glitter wears off, and he begins to have an inkling 
of what is underneath. He discovers that this sort 
of society is not remarkable for principle and high- 
toned honor. In fact, there are those who at the out- 
set he had thought to be generous, who were ready 
to take him by the hand, introduce him to their 


86 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


friends, “ show him round,” and who w T ere con- 
stantly telling him of their wealth, their having 
more money than they knew what to do with, who 
now do not hesitate to “ sponge ” on him, to pro- 
pose entertainments and leave him to pay the score, 
to enjoy his “ treats ” and never reciprocate. Or if 
they do occasionally entertain him, it is always “ for 
a purpose,” as at the rich table at the gambling- 
house, where free entertainment is offered, but which 
in the end is paid for with a vengeance — a bait on 
the hook to catch fools. And the hook catches a 
vast number, especially young fools not accustomed 
to the city. 

A suspicion that this kind of life would not turn 
out precisely what he had anticipated no doubt pro- 
trudes itself upon his meditations, but then he reas- 
sures himself with the thought that he does not in- 
tend it to be a permanency ; that he will enjoy him- 
self whilst young and afterward settle down to some 
substantial occupation suitable to his years. Still, 
he cannot conceal from himself that this kind of 
life is gaining in its hold upon him, fastening its 
grip tighter and tighter, so that when the time 
arrives for shaking it off it may not be so easily 
done. Suppose it will not be laid off — such things 
have happened — what would he do then ? 


GATHERING CLOUDS. 


87 


Not only is a young man enslaved by this kind 
of life, but he is gaining a bad name. It has got 
out ; vices cannot always be concealed. One who 
has been virtuous and upright when beginning a 
dissipated life may think nobody knows it, but a 
great many do know it. They see it in his flushed 
face, his expression and manner; sometimes his 
breath betrays him. The company he keeps and 
the irregular hours naturally excite apprehension 
even before more palpable facts are observed. It 
is clear that he is different from what he used to 
be, and, though love or friendship may strive to 
cover over the condition of things and hide unwel- 
come facts, sooner or later t( truth will out.” 

Bad company and a bad name are bad capital to 
set out with in life. Who will employ in his serv- 
ice or form business arrangements with one who 
has a bad name. Leaving out of view the moral 
aspects of the case, bad conduct and bad habits are 
bad policy. Would it not be better to imitate the 
prodigal's elder brother and take life rationally? 
Such suggestions must arise sometimes in the midst 
of a loose, wayward career and will not be put 
down. They are the spectres which flit around 
the banquet-table. 

4. The appetite for this kind of life becomes ex - 


88 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


acting. As the great master of thought and human 
nature has it, “it grows by what it feeds upon,” 
and the appetite has been growing upon this un- 
healthy stimulating diet until it has become vora- 
cious, refusing to be satisfied and evermore crying, 
“ Give ! Give !” It gains power and mastery, and 
becomes uncontrollable. What spectacle more piti- 
able than that of the wretched victim who 

“ Knows the right, and yet the wrong pursues,” 

— who, condemning and abhorring himself and his 
ways, 

“Resolves and resolves, 

But still remains the same,” 

driven on, as it would seem, with desperate persist- 
ence, though destruction and woe stand full in view? 
I have seen such waiting in these aisles and else- 
where to speak with the minister at the close of 
Sunday-night services, that they might at least un- 
burden the wretched soul by telling their sad story, 
and to say with a pathos such as might touch a heart 
of stone, “ Oh, sir, can’t you help me to be free ?” 
Yes, I have seen them weeping burning tears over 
the wretched slavery which they feel they cannot 
break. 

Our prodigal, perhaps, did not quite reach this 


GATHERING CLOUDS. 


89 . 


stage, but he has not the power nor the moral 
courage to pause in his career, to bring his appetites 
into subjection, and he goes on and on in riotous 
living amid wretched associations until he has 
“ spent all.” One infatuation connected with such 
a life is the victim’s persistent confidence that he 
can break off whenever he chooses. Reason and 
remonstrate with him, persuade and entreat if you 
will. “ Oh,” he will say, “ you are mistaken about 
it ; I can stop whenever I choose.” But he doesn’t 
choose — that is the difficulty — and, should he at- 
tempt it, he may find that he has miscalculated his 
power. In point of fact, he persists in willing the 
wrong and in doing it. 

5. Another disheartening item to a prodigal in 
these circumstances is that his means are steadily 
diminishing . Yes, and rapidly too. This is an 
unwelcome discovery, but it is a thing which will 
make itself known. The pleasures of sin are not 
gratuitous, and are not usually purchased at low 
rates ; pleasures of sin on a liberal scale are expen- 
sive. Riotous living costs money. Take the mere 
matter of drink. I am told that larger profits are 
made on wines and liquors, especially in the retail 
trade, than on any other article of commerce. Traf- 
fickers reckon upon the power of the appetite ; they 


■ 90 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


know it will be gratified, come what may and cost 
what it may. So with regard to other indulg- 
ences. Living in his riotous manner, the prodigal 
must feel that all will soon be gone. Such thoughts 
are not pleasant or welcome, but they will sometimes 
obtrude and compel attention. Then, when all is 
gone — then what?” 

But what difference is it to sin ? Sin is exacting, 
sin is inexorable, sin is pitiless, sin takes money, 
takes strength, takes will-power, takes ambition, 
takes energy, takes hope, takes the immortal soul. 

The text says the prodigal wasted his “ sub- 
stance.” The items just mentioned were that sub- 
stance, and it is a substance that, once wasted, mil- 
lions of money cannot buy back. The wretches 
who entice and help a young man into sin and woe 
are not the persons to help him out of them. They 
“ squeeze the juice of the orange and throw the rind 
away.” How numerous the illustrations ! A low, 
dirty, bloated, drunken vagabond comes along beg- 
ging for a few pennies. Your friend beside you 
asks, “Do you know who that is? He belongs 
to one of the leading families of this city. But he 
is gone — gone !” Some such there are in yonder 
massive grated building beyond Jones’s Falls. Go 
visit it. As you walk the corridors the warden 


GATHERING CLOUDS. 


91 


tells you, “ That fellow was once in high society. 
He inherited a fine fortune and had fine prospects, 
but he was led off from one thing to another, until 
he ‘ went to the bad/ Money gave out, but his 
appetites didn’t. He took unlawful means to 
supply his empty purse, and that’s what brought 
him here.” So the far-off land does not look as 
inviting as at first. It has its drawbacks. 

6. The prodigal begins to be in want. He came 
with a full purse, well dressed, good-looking, favor- 
ably spoken of and in a prosperous condition, but 
now he begins to be in want. When on the high 
tide of prosperity, though cautioned and warned, 
the words were wasted ; in such circumstances they 
always are. Things have changed, however, and 
now he knows from experience that they were wise 
words. The distress asserts itself beyond all refu- 
tation or disputation. It weighs with practical 
argument upon him, pinching hard. He is in 
want — want. He lacks the very necessaries of 
life ; he is a starveling. When his purse was full, 
it seemed as if it would last always, but he had 
forgotten the old saying, “ The fool and his money 
are soon parted.” 

Some years ago I heard of a case where a young 
man came into possession of certain arrearages of 


92 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN 


pay — nearly a thousand dollars. He had never 
had so much in his life. His head was turned ; it 
made a fool of him. He determined to have one 
day’s enjoyment to himself. He hired all the hacks 
in the town, and, though he could ride only in one, 
he was resolved that nobody should ride that day 
but himself. This could not last ; the silly fellow 
and his money soon parted. 

f Want is compared to a wolf — by no means a 
welcome visitor. The expression “wolf at the 
door” indicates want in the home. This poor fel- 
low has no door for the wolf to come to ; he is a 
homeless wanderer. But the wolf follows him all 
day as he goes about, homeless, heartless, friendless 
and faint. The wolf of unsatisfied want dogs his 
steps ; and when he sinks in exhaustion, the wolf 
stands and glares at him. It even haunts him in 
his restless, unrefreshing sleep, so that he dreams 
of banquets and plenty within the old home, and 
then starts up, alas ! to find himself hungry still 
and that it was only a dream. Oh how surely sin 
winds one up ! How true the Bible’s declaration 
that its “ pleasures are but for a season ” ! 

As with the prodigal, so more or less with the 
sinner in this world. He is “in want” — always 
in want. The want, indeed, may not assert itself in 


GATHERING CLOUDS. 


93 


the same conspicuous way, nor, for the present, in 
the same harassing and distressing manner, per- 
haps ; but there is a felt uneasiness, a vacuum the 
world can never fill. It is the want of peace with 
God, the want of a satisfying good for the soul, the 
want of an approving conscience, the want of prep- 
aration for death, judgment and eternity. The sin- 
ner’s sins rise up before him ; he is convicted at the 
bar of conscience, and condemned. Then comes re- 
morse, the agent in executing the penalty. 

Such are some of the conditions of life in the 
far country, some of the results of what had 
seemed so inviting, so superior to old home attrac- 
tions. What is the decision now, when there is an 
opportunity to compare the pleasures of the outset 
and the disappointments and sufferings of the after- 
ward? 

In conclusion, notice 

1 . The deceitfulness of sin . This young man was 
led to believe that if he could only be released from 
the regimen of home and allowed to go where he 
wished and as he wished he would be happy. Sin 
was the suggester of that. Sin spoke those deceiv- 
ing, lying words. Sin is a cheat, and has always 
been. In the first recorded history of our race, 
when man was in primeval innocence, the great 


94 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


author and projector of siu in this world denied 
that if man ate the forbidden fruit he should sure- 
ly die, and so sin has been saying to our race down 
through the centuries, and is still saying, with her 
promises, her insidiousness, her deceitfulness, her 
multiplied temptations poisoning the minds of the 
credulous and leading even the virtuous and the 
upright into paths of disobedience and disappoint- 
ment. When the idea of future consequences is 
suggested — the idea of death temporal and death 
eternal — as the result of impenitence and indulgence, 
sin declares, “ Thou shalt not surely die.” Sin lied 
at the outset ; sin lies to-day. The Bible declares 
the great author of sin “ a liar from the beginning.” 
Sin puts on an innocent guise — the garb of friend- 
ship — makes pleasant promises in a kindly voice, 
but, though 

“She keeps the promise to the lip, 

She breaks it to the hope,” 

and in doing so breaks character, breaks prospects, 
breaks loving hearts, breaks down life itself, mak- 
ing wreck and ruin where there might have been 
good name, prosperity, honor, virtue and piety. 

2. See the folly of those who will 'persistently go 
into what cannot hut bring disappointment and dis - 


GATHERING CLOUDS. 


95 


aster. Neither much logic nor much philosophy is 
required to reach this conclusion ; common sense 
suggests it. Sin so perverts the intelligence, 
arouses the passions and droAvns the voice of rea- 
son and conscience that the poor victim rushes 
heedlessly into what reflection would assure him 
could bring only shame and sorrow. If men will 
handle fire, they should not be surprised if they 
are burned ; if they will place themselves in the 
midst of venomous serpents, they will be apt to 
be bitten. Could they only be induced to look at 
those who have tried the banquet-halls of sinful 
indulgence, they could not but see that it always 
brings disaster, that “the wages of sin is death.” 
How true the language of the Bible as regards 
the conduct of the wicked ! — “ Madness is in their 
heart while they live.” 

The poor unfortunates in insane asylums are not 
the only lunatics, nor the worst class of them. 
Moral — or, rather, immoral — lunatics are the worst, 
for theirs is a self-inflicted, self-continued lunacy, 
and a lunacy which not only overthrows reason, 
but destroys the immortal soul. Let me exhort 
you to look before you in the important steps you 
are taking in life. Think twice — think many times 
— before you commit yourself in ways of folly and 


96 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


indulgence. Learn, when the tempter assails, to 
say “ No.” That will be a great help in life. 
Learn to say “NO.” 

3. Boon-companions in sin are not the people to 
help when trouble comes. I would emphasize this 
because it is a discovery uniformly made by the 
victims of sin, but made too late. Whilst the 
money lasts there will be no lack of “ friends ” to 
dine and drink at their expense, to throw the dice 
with him whilst they win and he loses ; but when 
all is gone and he turns to these “ friends,” they do 
not care for his company ; and if he pushes himself 
and perhaps reminds them how he did toward them 
in his prosperous days, they become impatient, tell 
him they have had enough of this thing; they are 
tired of it, and it must be stopped. Ah ! what a 
world this is ! 

Finally, notice that the way of transgressors is 
hard. How beautiful the broad way seems at the 
beginning ! Such a magnificent avenue, a splendid 
roadway, such multitudes upon it, so gorgeous and 
gay, so full of stir, excitement and parade ! Wide 
are its portals, and many there be which go in 
thereat, but it is a bad road. Though all may 
seem well for a while, things will change for the 
worse; for “there is a way which seemeth right 


GATHERING CLOUDS. 


97 


unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of 
death.” May you never learn this by experience ! 
And if there be one here to-night who has learned 
it, God pity you, friend, God help you out of it ! 
Nothing but grace can do that. But I thank God 
that grace is offered even to the most abandoned — 
offered to “ whosoever will accept it.” 

7 


- 






TROUBLES IN THE FAR COUNTRY. 


'And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country l 

Luke xv. 15. 


Y. 

TROUBLES IN THE FAR COUNTRY. 

mHOSE who have read the Latin classics will 
remember that the familiar quotation “Facilis 
decensus Averni ” is used by the poet in reference 
to the descent of iEneas into hell to have an inter- 
view with his father, Anchises, and to his finding 
the return obstructed, illustrating the idea that it is 
easier to get into difficulty than to get out of it, 
easier to travel the downward road than to retrace 
one’s steps. If the prodigal son, amongst other 
advantages, had received a liberal education, it is 
not impossible that the experience of iEneas might 
have occurred to him as now being reduplicated in 
his unfortunate self. With his pockets filled with 
money, with abundant boon-companions, with pleas- 
ures by day and pleasures by night, it was plain and 
pleasant sailing — smooth seas, propitious breezes, 
bright skies, all “ merry as a marriage-bell.” But 
now things are different. With money gone, friends 

gone, pleasures gone, character gone, respect gone, 

101 


102 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


what remains bat rebuffs, disappointment, well- 
nigh despair? His condition has become so press- 
ing that he cannot remain inert, grieving over the 
now-regretted past. He feels but too keenly that 
regrets will not bring back bygones. To replace 
himself where he once was is impossible ; he does 
not even hope for that. The jewel he has so ruth- 
lessly thrown away he does not hope to recall. 
Even could he reform and henceforth lead an up- 
right life, the dark chapters can never be obliterated, 
nor can their pernicious effects, morally and physi- 
cally, be entirely overcome. As at present situated 
his case has taken on the worst possible type. Not 
only have the means and the opportunities once 
his ' been recklessly and hopelessly squandered, but 
actual want has come and with cruel, remorseless 
power is pressing on him. If life itself can be pre- 
served, he cannot see by what means it shall be 
done. Hunger gnaws at his vitals day after day, 
strength is gradually failing, and at this rate it 
cannot be long before nature must succumb. Yes, 
easy was the descent to Avernus, but the way of 
escape seems not only difficult, but wellnigh im- 
possible. 

However, our prodigal, great as is his extremity 
and bitterly as he may regret his folly, cannot give 


TROUBLES IN THE FAR COUNTRY. 103 


up all hope. a While there is life there is hope.” 
Possibly there may be some way of delaying the 
final catastrophe until times improve. Perhaps he 
can find somebody who will employ him and give 
him enough to keep off actual want ; so our young 
man sets out to seek employment. 

1. We call your attention first to the 

Inherent Difficulties in the Prodigal’s 
Case. 

He is really not adapted for any useful service. 
He cannot do manual labor : he is not physically 
capable, not having been trained to muscular exer- 
tion and endurance. Like the unjust steward in 
another parable, he might say, “I cannot dig.” 
Indeed, he has not been brought up to any kind 
of self-help ; his education, training, habits, tastes, 
have been very different from that. He was one 
of those counted the favored among mankind, 
being amply provided for and with no necessity 
for industrial occupation. Hence he finds himself 
in a most perplexing condition. With money gone, 
prospects gone, friends gone, with no employment 
and with no fitness for helping himself, what is he 
to do? 

2. This brings us to notice 


104 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


The Folly of Parents who Train up Sons 
to do Nothing, 

no matter if they have the fortune of Croesus. I 
care not how brilliant their children’s prospects, nor 
what their resources and advantages : the father who 
brings up his children to do nothing makes a capi- 
tal mistake. In this country, happily, we have no 
law of primogeniture by which, as in the Old 
World, property is indefinitely transmitted through 
the eldest son from generation to generation. For- 
tunes with us, after having passed into one gen- 
eration, must afterward take their chance. And 
how few fortunes are kept intact ! How soon they 
go into other hands ! How soon, indeed, they are 
completely scattered! How the wheel revolves! 
Here is a man who was on the top not long ago, 
but the wheel has been turning, and he is going 
down rapidly, if, indeed, he is not already at the 
bottom. How many once-conspicuous families in 
our large cities have fallen entirely out of sight ! 
How quickly changes follow one another in this 
rotary land ! How often the third generation is 
among the poorest! How important that when 
sons may be deprived of paternal wealth they 
should be able to earn a living for themselves! 


TROUBLES IN THE FAR COUNTRY. 105 


The disadvantage of inheriting wealth is two- 
fold : it brings necessarily increase of temptation, 
and it brings usually to impractical heirs the proba- 
bility that if disaster overtakes them they will not 
be prepared so to meet it as to rise above misfor- 
tune and make a new and noble history ; so that it 
is eminently wise and important, no matter what a 
young man’s prospects, that he should be taught to 
help himself. Had it been thus with the prodigal, 
finding he was in danger of want he could have 
comforted himself with the reflection that he had 
been accustomed to business — that, notwithstanding 
the prospect of a fortune, he was educated to do 
something — so that when the pinch of the famine 
came he could have said to any who might be 
concerned for him, “ Oh, you needn’t be troubled 
about me ; I can take care of myself.” But when 
the person is a broken-down young “ gentleman,” 
who will hire him ? Poor material this to bring 
into the market — a woruout rouS, a fast young 
man about town who has got to the end of his 
string. Who will hire him ? Who wants him ; 
He could not earn his salt. What sort of a day- 
laborer would he make ? Farmers would not have 
him for a farm-hand ; how many hours could he do 
field-work ? The proprietor would be too smart to 


106 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


be encumbered with such rubbish when good hard 
workers glut the market and are begging for em- 
ployment. 

Our prodigal’s condition grows worse and worse. 
Though he is trying to hire himself, nobody seems 
disposed to take him ; he is a drug on the market. 
How mortifying are constant repulses ! How dis- 
heartening, applying from door to door only to be 
told again and again that he is not wanted ! His 
very appearance is against him, looking as if he 
had seen better days and had been brought down 
by irregular living. 

Another thing in which also the prodigal re- 
sembles the unjust steward is that he cannot beg. 
Wonderful is it how pride lingers. When pros- 
perity is gone, when friends are gone, when home 
is gone, when all adaptation to useful occupation is 
gone, there is still some sort of pride. Self-respect 
is commendable. Even in the humblest circum- 
stances that pride which restrains one from doing an 
unworthy thing is deserving of praise. But “ poor 
and proud,” in the usual sense, is most unfortunate, 
standing in the way, as it so often does, of accept- 
ing the new conditions Providence is indicating, and 
of honestly and vigorously making the most of 
them, thus commanding respect for the beautiful 


TROUBLES IN THE FAR COUNTRY. 107 


deportment and not unfrequently winning success 
from the midst of misfortune. 

No doubt the prodigal’s pride was sorely tried. 
No doubt it pained him much to be seeking a place 
as a hireling where he had so recently been “a 
society young man” going the rounds of pleasure; 
but it pained him still more to go hungry to bed 
and to wake up hungry in the morning ; so that, 
however disposed to be proud as well as poor, he 
had no alternative but to accept the situation and 
take whatever he could get. 

“ Poor and proud” is a conjunction only too 
common now. In order to keep up appearances 
how many resort to shuffling and expedients such 
as in the nature of the case cannot cover up un- 
welcome facts and tend only to enhance the al- 
ready onerous privation and discomfort ! Others, 
in order to indulge themselves in what is beyond 
their means, resort to deception and fraud. Some 
young men who come to sojourn a while in the city 
do this. Not willing, like the prodigal, to seek em- 
ployment, they resort to asking “ a little assistance.” 
They want it for only a short time. Sometimes 
they come to the minister, sometimes they represent 
themselves as having been disappointed in getting 
“an expected check.” A few years ago a young 


108 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


man who had been some months in the city, and 
whom I had seen several times, came to me with 
this check-story, stating that his father was to send 
him one and that it would certainly arrive the next 
day, but that he was obliged to have money at once, 
and that if I would advance it, it would be re- 
turned to me within twenty-four hours. I did so, 
and, though years have passed, I have never heard 
of the money nor of the young man. Even our 
prodigal was not so mean as that. 

Another thing besetting the prodigal is 

The Difficulty of Getting Back Home. 

The land he is in is a far-off land. This is in ac- 
cordance with his original intention, but he over- 
reached himself in going so far. His desire was to 
get so far away from the home people as to be 
beyond their interference, and even their hearing 
of him, but in doing this he has placed a serious 
obstacle in the way of his securing help in his ex- 
tremity. How can a poor wretch such as he travel 
that distance ? Travel requires money, and where 
can he get that? How illustrative of a sinner’s 
difficulties ! Sin carries the sinner so far away that 
to get back of himself is impossible. 

Then, whilst necessity suggests returning to his 


TROUBLES IN THE FAR COUNTRY. 109 


kindred as a relief from his distress — and possibly 
the only one — the prodigal cannot say he is anxious 
to go. How could he in his present condition show 
himself where everybody knows him ? Is he ready 
to be rebuked or repulsed by the old father whom 
he has distressed and dishonored ? Can he bear to 
be the theme of neighborhood jeers and jests ? for 
in a dull country neighborhood such a theme would 
only be too welcome. He has not got quite to that. 
What consequences sin entails ! Meanwhile, the 
wolf of hunger still follows him with glaring eyes 
and with jaws ready to devour. He must do some- 
thing. He will hire himself for any service, no 
matter how degrading, and for any price, no matter 
what. But all the usual places are occupied, and 
he is constrained to say to himself, “ No man hath 
hired me ; no man will hire me.” He betakes him- 
self to the country, and at length finds a proprietor 
who consents to take him, though for a most hum- 
bling employment : he sends him into his fields to 
feed swine. He does not give him even the poor 
terms “ food and clothing the young man does not 
get servants’ fare, or, if he does, it is so stinted that 
his hunger is not allayed, and he would fain fill his 
belly with the husks which the swine were eating. 
In his extremity he has come down so low as to 


110 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


share the banquet of the hogs. Such are “ the 
wages of sin.” 

“ Beggars cannot be choosers ” is an old saying, 
and, though the prodigal does not confess himself a 
beggar, he is in a strait compelling him to take 
whatever he can get and to be thankful for that. 
Every effort has failed. No doubt he has appealed 
to the kindness — even to the pity — of those who 
used to eat his dinners and drink his wines in his 
flush days, but they have no use for him now, and 
bluff him off, telling him that things have changed. 
Even the threadbare relics of his gentlemanly days 
are witnesses against him and make mock at his 
misfortunes. 

The prodigal's employment, too, is specially 
humiliating to him as a Jew, inasmuch as the swine 
were unclean animals according to his religion, and 
as such were forbidden and despised ; so that employ- 
ment the most degrading and despicable contributes 
to prostrate the last remnants of pride and self-re- 
spect. His occupation, however, has one recom- 
mendation : it suits a man who is fit for nothing 
else. Any one can sit in a field and look at hogs 
and give them husks to eat ; no skill or ability is 
needed for that. 

The occupation has another advantage : it fur- 


TROUBLES IN THE FAR COUNTRY. Ill 


nishes abundant opportunity for meditation. If 
disposed to review his life and make up an opinion 
upon it, the prodigal certainly can do it now. I 
have thought, when observing that picturesque sight 
so often seen in the Highlands of Scotland, the shep- 
herd away off on the lonely hillside with his flock 
around him, what a life for meditation his might 
be. What a singular history, passing all his days 
with only dumb nature and these dumb creatures as 
his companions ! How much opportunity for profit- 
able reflection ! So this poor prodigal among his 
hogs has opportunity to think. And how the past 
comes up, the ghosts of departed hours and wasted 
advantages ! How he recalls the days of prosperity, 
the bright pictures of childhood’s home and youth’s 
abundance, when there “ was enough and to spare ” 
and when there were kind and loving hearts always 
ready to make much of him ; and all this, and more, 
left so sadly, so wickedly ! How does that past look 
from the present standpoint ? What are his views 
of a life of pleasure now ? What is his decision 
upon the question whether he has not been making 
himself a fool? 

“'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, 

And ask them what report they bore to heaven, 

And how they might have borne more welcome news.” 


112 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


The only food he has proves inadequate. The pods 
of the carob tree — a common food for swine in the 
East, wretched provision for man at best — have 
become so parched and crisp under the burning 
drought that they are nothing more than dry 
husks, having little or no nutriment, and he 
strives in vain to fill himself with them and thus 
appease the pangs within ; so that we hear from 
him the plaintive cry, “ I perish with hunger.” 
The wolf has him now. He has been following 
him all along, and holds him at last in his grasp ; 
so that he cries out, “ I perish !” 

It is said that a drowning man has brought be- 
fore him in a moment his whole past life. Persons 
rescued after having become insensible tell us that 
such has been their experience — that all seemed to 
come before them at once. Possibly it may have 
been so, when the keen pangs of hunger had 
reached the point where the prodigal felt he was 
perishing, that the past came crowding up with all 
its aggravating pictures. And what a past that 
must have seemed to him ! 

Look now at the moral teachings of this part of 
the prodigal’s history. 

1. He never thought he would come to this. When 
leaving home, a young man in good health, good 


TROUBLES IN THE FAR COUNTRY. 113 


society and with abundant means, he would not have 
believed that he could possibly descend so low. 
The gentleman’s son of that day — the fine young 
gentleman — is now a vagabond. Yes, a vagabond. 
Who ever would have thought that of him ? To 
himself he may say, “ Could I have believed I 
could ever go so far astray? But I was de- 
ceived.” Yes, he was deceived. He was too self- 
confident and too venturesome. “ He that trusteth 
in his own heart,” says the Bible, “is a fool.” How 
many the outcasts in Baltimore who were once rep- 
utable and promising when starting on their down- 
ward course could have been made to believe they 
would ever come to what they now know them- 
selves to be? Could the picture of their present 
degraded selves have been shown them in their 
days of comparative purity as their future portrait, 
with indignation they would have exclaimed, “ Is 
thy servant a dog?” 

Young men are the same now. If there be 
one to whom these words come who has already 
ventured too far under the stress of temptation, 
and kind friends should caution and remonstrate 
with him in love and faithfulness, I fear it would 
be just the same in as a thousand other cases. The 
friend would be met with the reply, “ Oh, you are 
8 


114 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN 


entirely mistaken. You needn’t fear for me ; there’s 
no danger/’ How many times I have heard that ! 
How many times I have seen those of whom there 
was “ no danger ” afterward miserable prodigals ! 

2. Those who seek their portion from sin and 
pleasure or from any mere worldly good, like the 
prodigal, are feeding on husks. Even should you 
gain that which you are seeking — if you should 
have abundance to meet every wish, if you should 
have sinful pleasures and worldly good to the ut- 
most — it will still be true that you are feeding 
upon husks. Certain it is that 

“The world can never give 
The bliss for which we sigh.” 

It was not designed for that; God made us for 
higher and nobler ends. How uniform the ex- 
perience of those who leave the fountain of living 
waters and endeavor to quench their thirst from the 
world’s “ broken cisterns ” that they find themselves 
perishing ! 

One of the most lamentable and impressive illus- 
trations of the emptiness of all mere human good 
may be seen at the great fashionable watering-places 
where throngs of pleasure-seekers congregate. Their 
resources are unbounded. No stint for money — 


TROUBLES IN THE FAR COUNTRY. 115 


always at hand, that golden key which opens every 
door — whilst opportunity stands ready on every 
side and in every variety. Yet how pitiful the 
result ! How these people turn unsatisfied from 
each folly they have rushed into to seek a fresh 
one ! how, after exhausting all the usual rounds, 
they grasp at anything, however trifling and con- 
temptible, simply because it is new, the remorseless 
appetite ever crying out for some change and catch- 
ing eagerly at anything if it is only new ! 

What a graphic, touching and admonitory picture 
is that drawn by King Solomon of his personal ex- 
perience when ranging without stint all the fields 
of earthly good — when having set himself pur- 
posely to “ prove ” this thing, and having said to 
himself, “ Enjoy pleasure” — how, after having gone 
the rounds of sensual good, having provided for 
himself palaces, parks, lakes and forests, vast treas- 
ures of silver and gold, “ cattle upon a thousand 
hills,” innumerable men-servants and maidens, the 
most accomplished men-singers, women-singers and 
players on instruments — indeed, according to his own 
statement, having not “ withheld his heart from any 
joy ” and having prospered in every particular ; so 
that he says he was “ great before all that were 
before him;” and yet the cravings of his soul were 


116 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


uot satisfied ! “ Then,” says he, “ I looked on all 

the works that my hands had wrought, and on the 
labor that I had labored to do ; and behold, all was 
vanity and vexation of spirit , and there was no profit 
Hinder the sun” His loaded princely banquet-tables, 
after all, had fed him on “ husks ;” so that, after 
having tried in vain to fill himself, he had to wail 
out the mournful dirge, “And yet I perish with 
hunger !” 

So it is still with those who seek to satisfy them- 
selves with carnal things. They are feeding on 
husks — husks of fashionable vanities ; husks of 
frivolous follies; husks of parade and display, 
with the sauce of “ envy, jealousy and all unchar- 
itableness;” husks at the gaming-table and the 
horse-race ; husks in all the lower lusts. 

No; the immortal nature fashioned after the 
image of God refuses to be satisfied with these 
earthly husks; so that the votaries of worldliness 
and sin emerge from their revelings and banquet- 
ings finding them worthless and unsatisfying ; so 
that, had we only ears to hear the language of their 
inmost spirits, it would be, “ Oh, sirs, sirs, we are 
perishing with hunger !” As one has most appro- 
priately said, “The crowning misery, too, is that 
the power of sinful gratifications to stay that hunger 


TROUBLES IN THE FAR COUNTRY. 117 


but for the moment is diminishing, the pleasure 
which is even hoped for from them still growing 
fainter, and yet the goad behind urging to seek that 
pleasure still becoming fiercer, the sense of the hor- 
rible nature of the bondage thus increasing with 
overpowering intensity.” Witness the testimony 
of that most gifted genius, Byron. Though still 
comparatively a young man, sin had so burned out 
both body and soul that on his last birthday he 
wrote, 

“My days are in the yellow leaf; 

The flowers and fruits of love are gone: 

The worm, the canker and the grief 
Are mine alone. 

“The fire that on my bosom preys 
Is lone as some volcanic isle; 

No torch is kindled at its blaze, 

A funeral-pile!” 

3. See, also, here illustrated the tendency of the 
unrenewed soul, when made conscious of its need, to 
seek relief from mere natural sources. This wretched 
young man in his efforts to find relief hired him- 
self to “ a citizen of that country,” the far-off land, 
instead of endeavoring at once to return, if possible, 
to the father’s house. Such is the general habit of 
those who are in the far-off land of sin. But the 


118 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


only possible hope in the circumstances is at once to 
forsake the wretched land and all that belongs to it. 
To linger here is to hunger still, and all expedients 
which stop short of an absolute and final forsaking 
of the doomed country of sin must inevitably fail. 
Compromises will be in vain. Giving up some 
evil habit, resolving to “do better,” beginning to 
attend church, “ confirmation,” “ making a profes- 
sion of religion ” and “ going to the communion,” 
— none of these, without grace in the heart and 
penitence at Jesus’ feet, will avail. Sinners must 
learn the imperative necessity of looking beyond 
all human resources and beyond all mere instru- 
mentalities if they would secure help for their 
perishing souls. Cease from hiring yourself to 
human devices and to mere “ instrumentalities,” 
and come to Him who has power to give all you 
need. 

“ To you, O young men, I call, and my voice is 
to the sons of men. O ye simple, understand 
wisdom; hear, for I speak to you of excellent 
things. The opening of my lips shall be of right 
things. Whosoever findeth me ” — that is, true re- 
ligion — “ findeth life and shall obtain favor of the 
Lord.” 


COMING TO HIS RIGHT 1JIND. 




“ And when he came to himself” 

Luke xv. 17. 


VI. 

COMING TO HIS BIGHT MIND. 

rjIHE term “moral insanity,” though sometimes 
used to shield crime, represents a reality and 
prevails more extensively than the ordinarily- 
recognized type of mental aberration. The Script- 
ures represent ungodly sinners as bereft of reason : 
“ Madness is in their hearts while they live.” The 
conduct of many, indeed, is so contrary to sound 
judgment, self-interest and common sense, so in- 
fatuated, reckless and desperate, so foolish and 
wild, that the only solution possible is that they 
are crazy — that the mind is acting in an abnormal 
and unhealthy manner or that the controlling fac- 
ulty has been entirely dethroned. Sometimes, in- 
deed, it seems as if there were a sort of duality, a 
double personality, one of which reasons correctly 
and forms just conclusions, the other of which 
throws overboard reason, good sense and welfare 
for time and eternity — every interest, indeed — and 

121 


122 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


rushes to what would seem inevitable and irretriev- 
able destruction. Not a few in this day illustrate 
this sad condition. They live and act as if they 
were insane. 

Combined with moral insanity ; and accessory 
thereto, are often those fatal delusions practiced by 
the devil to which the apostle refers when he says, 
“ The god of this world hath blinded their minds, 
lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine 
unto them to this condition, with appetite and 
passion asserting full and unrestrained power, with 
reason virtually dethroned and the mind blinded 
against healthful, saving light, what can remain but 
complete and final disaster ? 

The prodigal has apparently been approximating, 
if he has not actually reached, this sad condition. 
Madman he has been from the day he left his 
father’s house, and, judging from analogous cases, 
his case must have passed into the last stage and 
must be beyond human remedy. Happily for him, 
he is to be an exception. He is to be arrested in his 
downward career ; he is to look at things in a new 
and more healthful light ; he is to come to his right 
mind. Our topic leads us to notice 

I. The evidences of the prodigal’s moral insan- 
ity. First, his 


COMING TO HIS RIGHT MIND. 


123 


Unreal and Distorted Views. 

We encountered this at the outset. Perhaps no 
young man in that region was more desirably situ- 
ated. He had a good home, a good station in so- 
ciety, abundant means and everything to make him 
thankful for his lot, but he had perverted ideas in 
regard to what was for his advantage. Like so 
many of his class, he could not see things in their 
true light. He felt that he was not getting what 
he was entitled to get, that the time had come when 
childish things should be put away. He felt that 
he was able to take care of himself without being 
still kept, as it were, “ under tutors and governors.” 
From this habit of looking at things, how natural 
that he should begin to regard himself as wronged, 
as restrained of his liberty, as not allowed the 
privileges of others of his class ! 

True, we may say with confidence that he is in 
error, that he has all the privileges which are really 
best for him. We may be sure that the rule of a 
father whose conduct, as we see, was only too in- 
dulgent, could not have been unreasonable and 
rigorous. It was not true that the son’s rights 
were invaded, that the father was unwilling to 
allow to his sons the liberties he had enjoyed him- 


124 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


self in his young days; it was not true that the 
best thing for the young man would be for the 
father to fill his pockets and let him go. No ; it 
was by no means true, as subsequent events only 
too clearly and sadly proved, that his welfare or 
his real happiness would be enhanced by his depart- 
ing to other scenes and exchanging home and its ad- 
vantages for some place he knows not where and 
associates he knows not whom ; or, to put it still 
more appositely, that he should be allowed to de- 
part on an errand whose chief incentive was free- 
dom from all wholesome restraint and liberty to 
run to every excess of riot. The experiment, thor- 
oughly made, proved that moral restrictions are 
wholesome and wise, and placed only where to 
overstep them will be to encroach upon and destroy 
true interest and happiness. If to escape from 
home may sometimes bring advantages, it must be 
remembered that it also involves serious risks. But 
our young man was not in a frame of mind to ap- 
preciate the latter ; he could see but one side of the 
question. Money and freedom were his only ideas 
of life. He had become a monomaniac; reason 
and judgment were dethroned. He was not in his 
right mind. 

2. He was 


COMING TO HIS RIGHT MIND. 


125 


Deaf to the Teachings of Experience. 

It is not true that in a quiet country neighborhood 
there are no opportunities for improvement, and 
that everything desirable is accumulated in the 
great outside world. Many a man when in 
obscurity, by making the most of even limited 
advantages, has laid the foundations of a future 
eminence, and his success, indeed, has been all the 
greater because freedom from distraction and temp- 
tation had enabled him to concentrate his attention 
upon the one thing of self-culture, until when, 
finally, the fullness of time came for him to step 
out on the stage of life’s activities, he was equal to 
the occasion and proved himself u every inch a 
man.” 

The great world-centres are dependent almost for 
existence on a constant inflow of fresh blood and 
vital force from the rural regions. City wear and 
tear, effeminacy and luxury, strain upon sensibilities 
and nerve-power, use up the human material with 
great rapidity ; so that the population in time would 
die out unless replenished from fresh, original 
sources. But, mark you, the outside material, in 
order to vitalize the degenerating population, must 
retain its purity. For unsophisticated young men 


126 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


from the country to throw themselves into the 
vortex of city temptations and vices is only to 
increase more rapidly the waste it was designed to 
prevent, for no victims are so readily ensnared and 
none so soon run their race as the inexperienced and 
the unsophisticated when once they have yielded to 
the enchantments of the world, the flesh and the 
devil. 

In times far past human nature was much the 
same as it is now. This young man may have known 
some from his own young circle who had tried the 
experiment of exchanging the simple, quiet life of 
a virtuous country neighborhood for the great world, 
and that shipwreck of property, character, health, 
life, had been the result was neighborhood talk. 
But the experience of such has no weight with one 
whose heart is set on making the experiment for 
himself. Our young man, though there were no 
newspapers, railroads or telegraphs, still had heard 
and was hearing the rush and roar of the great 
world, and he was determined that he would go 
into it and see for himself. No matter though 
others had been destroyed in the vortex of its sins ; 
no matter though he had been warned : all was as 
empty breath to him. In spite of cautions and re- 
monstrances and warnings he was determined to try 


COMING TO HIS RIGHT MIND. 


127 


it for himself. He was infatuated ; you might as 
well reason with a madman. He was not in his 
right mind. 

3. There are a disregard and a 

Contempt of Palpable Facts, 

as encountered in his own experience. After reach- 
ing the foreign land he must have discovered very 
soon that it was not the elysium represented, that 
it was not so perfectly fascinating in every par- 
ticular, such a garden of enjoyments, so replete 
with pleasures all day long and all night long, 
as he had pictured it. Sometimes, perhaps, he 
was lonely, possibly a little homesick; at any 
rate, thoughtful. Turning matters over in his 
mind, he might conclude that “all is not gold 
that glitters” — that the dreamed-of pleasures of 
sin were not fulfilling their promise. 

Fruits of the fast life he may not have gathered 
as yet in large clusters and superabundance until 
they rotted on his hands, but there were those 
around him who had. There were some striking 
examples. There were young men who were fast, 
and had been fast until they had nearly run their 
race. He had observed them ; he could see and 
judge for himself whether this kind of life was 


128 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


“ genuine gold ” or whether it was but a mockery 
and a cheat. 

But such suggestions fail to break the spell. 
The unhealthy mental state continues. He cannot 
see his danger. “ In vain,” says the Bible, “ is the 
snare set in the sight of any bird.” Even the 
little bird, if you wish to entrap it, must be caught 
with guile. The trap has to be concealed : “ in vain 
is the snare set in the sight ” of the bird. Even the 
poor little bird, with its limited intelligence, will 
not walk knowingly into the trap, and especially 
if it should see that other birds are being caught. 
It is wise enough not to do that. But some young 
men are not as smart as birds ; they will go into 
the trap with their eyes open. You may put a sign 
over the door, and they will still go in. The trap 
may be lighted up at night, so that all knowing 
ones may see what it is, and, instead of going to 
their rest, as all good birds should do, they will 
go into the trap. There are plenty of traps in these 
large cities, and, unfortunately, birds from the coun- 
try — unsophisticated birds — are most easily caught. 
“ In vain is the snare set in the sight of any bird” 
but not in vain shall it be set in the sight of many 
a young man. 

Unfortunately, the snares are various. Gamblers 


COMING TO HIS RIGHT MIND. 


129 


set their traps, and although they may keep the 
windows closed, as if the house were unoccupied, 
they manage to call the attention of their victims. 
Gamblers use free entertainments as a bait, but 
make you pay a heavy price before you are out of 
the toils. Gamblers may keep their places going 
through the livelong night and will make you wel- 
come at any hour, and as often as you may enter, 
until they have exhausted your purse, and then they 
will give you no more welcomes and no more free 
suppers. Other traps are set, and before the eyes 
of young men, and they will go into them even 
though they never come out safe. Certain it is 
that, though they may not be finally caught and 
held, they will feel the effects as long as they 
live. 

Though our prodigal has found from sad experi- 
ence the falsity and the folly of his loose and reck- 
less course, it does not arrest him. He goes, and 
goes again. Not like the bird is he warned by the 
fate of others, nor does he learn wisdom by his own 
experience. He perseveres, and with unabated ar- 
dor ; comes off damaged, but goes again ; and con- 
tinues to go until lack of means, wreck of health 
or other failure disables him, when he is thrown 
aside as worthless. Is this not infatuation ? Is it 


130 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


not insanity ? Can a young man be in his right 
mind who allows himself to be deceived, ensnared 
and held in dismal bondage, led captive, despoiled 
and destroyed, body and soul, by evil-doers and 
enemies ? 

Insanity was also illustrated in the young man’s 
absolute 

Want of Foresight and Regard for the 
Future. 

Here was property which in the course of nature 
would be coming to him, and which, properly used, 
would no doubt support him in comfort and respect- 
ability, and until it did come to him in due process 
he would have a home and ample provision. But 
time and Providence moved too slowly for him ; he 
must have it at once and he must use it at once, no 
matter what might come in the future. He placed no 
correct value upon it ; it was a mere minister to his 
pleasures. The more pleasure accessible, the more 
freely it goes, and as to planning or caring for the 
future, or even endeavoring to make the money last 
or eking it out so as to prolong his pleasures, he 
would not do it. I believe there is a revelers’ 
song the sentiment of which is that they must “ not 
think of the morrow.” No wonder they sing it. 


COMING TO HIS RIGHT MIND. 


131 


Could they realize what those morrows are to be, 
they would not care to see them in advance ; one 
sight would be quite enough. 

The insane squander property ; so does the prod- 
igal. The insane have no concern for their good 
name ; neither has the prodigal. The insane are 
reckless as to the company they keep; so is the 
prodigal. The insane will venture into imminent 
peril ; so will the prodigal. The record tells us 
that he not only squandered his substance in riot- 
ous living, but kept company with harlots. Rep- 
utable friends will not follow him into such as- 
sociations, will not invite him to their houses, will 
not recognize him. His prospects — what are they 
now ? How can there be “ prospects ” for such a 
character ? All the fundamental principles on 
which might be predicated a favorable future he is 
abjuring. Even his capacity to achieve he is un- 
dermining by days of dissipation and nights of 
rioting. He is steadfastly attacking not only 
honor and peace, but health, reason and life. 
Assaults so tremendous and persistent on his 
store of life and strength are exhausting it before 
the time, and soon he will have run the race and 
will be flung out of it. Our courts, when the case 
demands it, appoint a commission of lunacy to take 


132 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


charge of the property of the insane ; had there 
been such in that day, what could have been more 
proper for this young man ? Pity that such com- 
missions could not be appointed for many such peo- 
ple now ! Certainly they are not competent to take 
care of themselves. 

It is customary to speak of the destroying rav- 
ages of sin, but it almost seems that we do even 
sin injustice, forgetting the proverb, “Give the 
devil his due.” Sin does destroy, but how often 
the dissipated young man joins hands with sin to 
destroy himself. Can he be in his right mind? 
Should there not be a commission of lunacy, see- 
ing he is throwing himself into the consuming fires 
of hell ? 

II. Notice now some of the circumstances calcu- 
lated to bring the prodigal once more to his right 
mind. 

1. Though he had not been himself in all this 
sad history, 

He must have Suffered from Self-Re- 
proach and Condemnation. 

It is one of the blessed provisions in the consti- 
tution of our nature that we cannot all at once bring 
ourselves to approve our evil deeds, that there is a 


COMING TO HIS RIGHT MIND. 


133 


voice within not only saying, “ This is wrong,” but 
also inflicting a certain retribution. Judges may 
fail to decide wisely, juries may sometimes bring in 
an erroneous verdict, but here are judge, jury and 
court which will not be diverted from a right judg- 
ment. Though we escape the laws of the land and 
bid defiance to the moral law, there is a tribunal 
within the soul which arraigns, convicts and con- 
demns, and whose judgment will not in any cir- 
cumstances be set aside. 

Self-conviction, self-condemnation and self-con- 
tempt, no doubt, were this young man’s familiar 
visitors. As the sense of his degradation and the 
power of his sinful life become more fixed and 
onerous he no longer excuses or palliates his vices ; 
he confesses judgment. Yes, I have seen such men 
— how often ! They have come to me and told 
their sorrowful story. Even the telling it has 
proved a relief to the poor burdened mind. So 
with this prodigal. He has reached that condi- 
tion in which he is willing to confess and unbosom 
himself, so heavily do his thoughts oppress him, 
so fiercely do they torment him, and so overwhelm- 
ingly do the tremendous convolutions of conscience 
enfold him. He is getting into a condition in which, 
possibly, he may be driven to look upon things from 


134 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


a more healthy standpoint. Who knows but that 
suffering may bring him to his senses? 

2. He recalls the past, and 

Sorrowfully Ponders his Better Days. 

What was he once? Respectable and respected, 
with friends in the best circles, family well to do, 
favored in circumstances, prospects good, and good 
character. With application and the influence he 
could command, no young man, perhaps, had a 
better outlook. But now what is he ? Poor, 
friendless, ragged, starving, with swine for his 
only companions. This is a come-down in the 
world. But he is not alone; there have been 
many such. Some of them are behind the grat- 
ings over yonder; some of them are under the 
ground over yonder, and some of them had better 
be. They go reeling to their homes to be a nuis- 
ance and a curse to wife and children, or they be- 
come a public nuisance. They seem to have passed 
the point where they can be reclaimed. 

But it is not too late for the prodigal. Off in the 
field, in his loneliness, there are time and opportunity 
to review his record. And how sad that record ! 
He has opportunity, too, to recall the old home. 
Oh, if he could see it once more— its abundance, 


COMING TO HIS RIGHT MIND. 


135 


its healthful tone, its kindliness ! Could one of 
those loving voices only once more fall upon his 
dreary, desolate ear and heart ! “ Those inmates — I 
wonder if they ever think of me now ? Their far- 
away boy — where is he ? No letters from him, no 
news. Where is he ? Is he alive, or is he dead ?” 
Who on earth can ever be to this young man what 
these home friends were to him ? All this was his 
once, yet he threw it all away. Fool that he was ! 
“ Infatuated,” does he say? “Crazy,” he says; “I 
was not in my right mind.” 

3. Another consideration is the 

Complete Disappointment and Failure 

as to the objects for which he forsook his home. 
He had not realized what he anticipated. In the 
fancy-pictures with which he had entertained him- 
self as to the pleasures of residence in the foreign 
lands, all the conditions of that sort of life were 
calculated upon with absolute certainty, but in 
actual fact it had been different. The pleasure was 
temporary and fleeting : it was like flowers that 
bloom but for a little time and then are blighted 
by the killing frost, or like the night-blooming 
cereus, which spreads out its glories and diffuses its 
fragrance but for a single night, and before the 


136 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


morning dawns is dead. Such are the splendid 
assemblies of the gay, where brilliant revelers seem 
floating in a fairy-scene, but the next day 

“The lights are fled, 

The garlands dead, 

And all but me departed.” 

Yes, after the debauch comes the fearful “ next 
morning,” as Bulwer terms it — the parched lip, the 
fevered brow, the bursting eyeballs, the ennui , the 
wishing he were dead. The whole proceeding, now 
that time for review and reflection has come, he 
cannot but feel has been, to say the least, a stu- 
pendous mistake. If he could only be put back 
where he was before he demanded the “ substance,” 
with the comforts, enjoyments and prospects which 
he then had, how quickly he would grasp the op- 
portunity and thank God for it ! But this has 
gone, and cannot be reclaimed. 

If there were on that window-pane some winter 
morning a beautiful frost-etching made by the freez- 
ing of the atmospheric moisture into the most deli- 
cate and exquisite tracery such as man’s skill can 
never equal, I might take my hand and in a mo- 
ment wipe it off, but who could ever replace it ? 
That tracery-work is purity, chastity, virtue ; this 


COMING TO HIS BIGHT MIND. 


137 


wiped off, who can ever replace it as at first? 
Reformation there may be, but never restored in- 
nocence as at first. There must be regrets, memories 
and results often affecting character or principle or 
health whilst time lasts, or even whilst eternity en- 
dures. 

The most malignant enemy could not have done 
worse for this young man than he has done for him- 
self. What he had hailed as liberty has proved a 
galling bondage ; what he had hoped would be a 
kingly banquet has proved husks and starvation. 
Was ever such disappointment? It seems as if it 
had been a horrid dream from which he has only 
just awaked. How different from what it seemed 
in advance, seen amidst the glow and halo of inex- 
perienced fancy, seen before exhaustive enjoyment 
had brought reaction ! When he looks back upon 
it, how vain and empty seem to have been all the 
glitter and pageantry ! Things are now getting into 
their proper proportions ; he is coming to his right 
mind, and through a hard tuition. The discipline 
of actual, intense suffering is helping to bring him 
round. 

Suffering is a schoolmaster. Some schoolmasters 
cannot get the attention of their pupils, some school- 
masters cannot bring their pupils to learn the les- 


138 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


sons set them, but Suffering is a schoolmaster to 
whom none can fail to give attention. When he 
brings pain, distress, disappointment, remorse of 
conscience and disgust with self, his pupils cannot 
but take heed to the lesson, and it is certain that 
unless there come a speedy change in them he can 
increase the treatment until they shall pause and 
listen to the instructor. To our poor prodigal, suf- 
fering has taught wholesome lessons, and the lessons 
are accomplishing their object : they are bringing him 
around. He has seen the glamour and falsehood 
surrounding earthly good, and he has discovered 
how great his folly in being borne away by such 
phantoms and deceptive cheats. The “ dream of 
his life ” which haunted him at the old home — the 
“ dream ” of getting off to enjoy himself — is ended, 
and it has proved only “a dream at the best.” 
Dream ? It was not a dream : it has been a tre- 
mendous reality, and it has left the barque which 
went out with everything taut and bright, spars 
symmetrical and beautiful, sails all set and breezes 
fresh and fair, to come back a poor shattered wreck, 
just getting into port, and no more. 

Awaked from his delusion, the prodigal comes to 
the conviction that something must be done ; he sees 
that there is 


COMING TO HIS BIGHT MIND. 


139 


Only one Possibility of Escape. 

What is that ? Shall he encourage it ? Can he ? 
Must he even think of it ? It is to return to the 
old home . Is this practicable ? Seriously ponder- 
ing that possibility, how it opens the long-sealed 
fountains of the obdurate and debased soul ! Poor 
creature ! Though his eyes are long unused to weep- 
ing, what burning tears now flow even at the thought 
of once more seeing that dear old home ! Possibly 
there may be hope. The prospect, all things con- 
sidered, is not cheering, but there is no alternative. 
It is this, or perish. He will venture, come what 
may. He will not expect his old place ; he will 
not mention it. Oh, if he can have the humblest 
servant’s place, that will be more than enough ; he 
will only be too thankful. The delusion, then, is 
gone at last ; the spell that had bound him and had 
wrecked him is broken. The poor creature is once 
more in his right mind ; he has come to himself. 

Now, in conclusion, notice 

The Devil’s Delusions. 

How important to guard against them ! Dear 
young friends, many of you, I thank God ! are 
not, and never will be, prodigal sons. You will 


140 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


be upright, virtuous, honorable; you will be true 
men; you will be respected, and will make your 
way in the world. But, nevertheless, the devil’s 
delusions may pursue you. Remember that, though 
in one sense you may not be a prodigal, in another 
sense you are a prodigal, away from the Best of 
fathers, away in the world’s temptations and en- 
snarements — away, if not in the midst of riotous 
living, yet bowed down to worship idols. Ambition, 
wealth, vain display, pleasure, you are worshiping 
as a prodigal from the heavenly Father’s house. 

How happy they who by grace divine are rescued 
from the devices of sin and Satan and sitting at 
Jesus’ feet clothed and in their right mind ! 

Self-denial you must surely practice. Purity and 
piety will cost you something, but they are worth 
much. Sometimes, when the forbidden fruit hangs 
fair and beautiful and promises to be luscious to the 
taste, it may require strong will, purpose and prin- 
ciple to say “ No.” But in that “ No ” is safety ; in 
that “ No ” is a good conscience ; in that “ No ” is 
purity of heart ; in that “ No,” by grace divine, 
through Jesus’ blood, is the favor of God. May 
God bring us all, as to our spiritual and eternal 
welfare, to our right minds ! 


THE PRODIGAL RETURNS HOfl/IE. 


“ And he arose , and came to his father. But when he was yet 
a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, 
and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, 
Father , I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no 
more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his sei'v- 
ants, Bring forth the best robe , and put it on him ; and put a ring 
on his hand, and shoes on his feet : and bring hither the fatted calf, 
and kill it ; and let us eat, and be merry : for this my son was 
dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” 

Luke xv. 20-24. 


VII. 

THE PRODIGAL RETURNS HOME . 


TT OW much of personal history is sometimes 
compressed within a short space ! The in- 
terests involved are of such extraordinary import- 
ance, so absorbing the attention, harrowing the 
sensibilities and stirring every element of the soul, 
that what has occupied only a small space of time 
seems as if it had been spread over a protracted 
period. To our prodigal it must have “ seemed an 
age ” since he left the old home — all his previous 
life, perhaps, does not appear so long — yet probably 
it has been only a year or two, perhaps not so long. 

“A day to suffering seems like a year ; 

A year, like passing ages.” 

Then not only does suffering seem to prolong 
time, but a great number of events and various 
phases of experience compressed within a short 
space have the effect of seemingly prolonging it. 

Both these causes combined, as in the prodigal's 

143 


144 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


case, must have made the time appear very long 
since the unhappy day he said “ Good-bye ” to his 
people. 

What may not have occurred in that home since 
the wanderer left ? What may not have been the 
sorrowful effects of his misbehavior ? What may 
not have been the fatal results of the thorns he left 
to fester in tender, loving hearts? Such chapters 
of cruel conduct have been but too often written in 
scalding tears. Its mementoes have been vacuums 
in the home-circle which nothing could fill ; its 
monuments have been real graves and tombstones. 
But, whatever the conditions of life at present ex- 
isting in the old home, the prodigal will soon dis- 
cover them for himself. 

We come now to consider 

The Prodigal’s Return. 

We have already seen that things have reached a 
crisis with the wretched young man. The struggle 
is now for life. To linger longer here is impossible; 
the alternative is simply leave or die. If he does 
leave, whither can he turn his longing eyes and 
tottering feet but to the forsaken father’s house? 
Natural affection offers some basis for hope, for, 
though he himself has trampled on this tender tie 


THE PRODIGAL RETURNS HOME. 145 


and ruthlessly thrown it away, he knows full well 
that the home people are not such as he, but of a 
far higher type ; and even prodigals will venture 
to build on a goodness which they themselves sad- 
ly lack. How often the dissipated and profligate 
young man, when disgusted with his wretched life 
and with himself and not knowing whither to turn, 
feels that the most acceptable relief for his tortured 
mind would be to terminate with his own hand his 
miserable existence, were it not for the “ something 
after death ” which he dreads ! It is that black 
shadow of fearful things to come, that “ terrible 
of terribles,” as Aristotle terms it — the horrid 
spectre of our evil deeds waiting to torment us 
beyond the grave — which drives us back rather 
to endure the ills we have 

“Than fly to others that we know not of.” 

Yes, “ life is sweet and should his putting out 
its light prove a mistake, certain it is that he can- 
not return to undo what he has done — to relume 
that light. So, inasmuch as there is no availing 
resource here, he must live on as best he can in 
this painful agony. The only possibility of mak- 
ing improvement on the blighted past — or, indeed, 
of satisfying the cravings of hunger, or even of 

10 


146 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


prolonging life — is to find his way back to the old 
home. 

And how dear that name seems now as it comes 
up uncalled among the spectres of the past ! To 
see it once more as it was in days gone by is indeed 
an impossibility, but to see it at all, after the horrors 
and depths into which he has been plunged, would 
be heaven begun below. He will go home. We 
hear him say, “ I will arise and go to my father.” 
But how will he go? How can he go? Far away 
as that home is, how, in his deplorably needy con- 
dition, can he ever reach it? What he had sought 
as an advantage — that a great distance should sepa- 
rate him from the interference, or even the knowl- 
edge, of friends, so that his pleasures should not be 
disturbed — now turns to torment him. Were he 
near, he might find ways of communicating with 
the home people, of telling them that he still lives, 
but that he is near to death from starvation, and, 
appealing to them in pity’s name to help him, he 
might even have heard the gracious call, “Come 
back ; all will be forgiven.” Possibly he might 
have been sent for. But sin has done its work 
thoroughly. It has swept away the last penny; 
it has broken him down in body and in spirit; it 
has wellnigh starved him; it has placed between 


THE PRODIGAL RETURNS HOME. 147 


him and possible relief an apparently impassable 
barrier. But what else is there for him ? Whither 
can he turn ? No other hope reveals itself to his 
tortured mind but the old home. Difficult as is the 
undertaking, he will make the attempt. If he had 
known our familiar hymn, he might have said, 

“ I can but perish if I go : 

I am resolved to try.” 

Let us look at the circumstances of the prodigal's 
return which in some respects are favorable. 

1 . He is forsaking the fruitful field of his follies 
and his sins. Should he remain in that land, no 
matter what prosperity might come to him — if such 
possibility could be — there would always be re- 
minders of what he had forfeited and lost. He 
would find himself in the condition to which prodi- 
gals are often brought, making difficulty in the way 
of restoration — the consciousness that his bad char- 
acter is against him, that the confidence he might 
have had has been forfeited, and that, consequently, 
the avenues that might lead to a new and better life 
are barred to him. It will be best to escape from 
his bad record and bad associates. Change of place 
is sometimes indispensable to complete reformation. 
Elsewhere there' may be hope ; he may make a new 


148 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


beginning. Should he remain here, even should 
prosperity return and should he find paying occu- 
pation when teeming crops are gathered from the 
now parched and sterile acres, with the return of 
prosperity would come also the return of tempta- 
tion ; for when prosperity abounds, sin and Satan 
hold their revels as they cannot when men are 
starving. But the probabilities are small that such 
a contingency as prosperity will ever return to tempt 
him. What he needs, and needs at once, is a means 
to save life. 

That is a blessed crisis when the prodigal re- 
solves to bid farewell to the land of his sin, suffer- 
ing and shame. How infinitely better had he never 
set foot upon it ! How important for young men 
to keep out of proximity to sin, to “ avoid it, pass 
not by it,” to seek for themselves another field 
rather than run the risk of being led into sin ! or, 
if that calamity has already occurred, how import- 
ant a change of place and of associates in order to 
break the accursed bondage ! If any here have 
been led into prodigal paths, would that they might 
find new scenes and new associates ! In this par- 
ticular it would be commendable to imitate the 
prodigal when he said, “ I will arise and go ” — go 
away from the scenes of my sorrows and my sins. 


THE PRODIGAL RETURNS HOME. 149 


2. The prodigal is now to take his first step out 
of peril. All other steps had been leading him 
into trouble and keeping him in it. So long as he 
had the resources his was a downward march, far- 
ther and farther away from the father’s house and 
farther and farther into the devil’s domain. Now, 
for the first time, he is changing his course. He 
has brought his craft around, and is heading home- 
ward. 

How narrow the escape from total wreck ! So 
near the rocks, the raging billows breaking and 
boiling around, destruction apparently inevitable, 
but just then the little craft is brought about and 
heads for the home port. How in after-life as we 
look back over the sea on which we have sailed, 
and perceive how narrowly we escaped fatal ship- 
wreck, we have reason to recognize the protecting 
hand of a kind and gracious Providence ! 

Some of you who hear me can recall exposures 
and perils in this very city when you were so near 
moral shipwreck that you just did escape, and that 
was all. You came, perhaps, to the city a stranger ; 
you found yourself surrounded with temptations. 
You were friendless and lonely; time hung heav- 
ily, especially after nightfall. Illuminated gate- 
ways to the domains of sin were inviting you in, 


150 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


and the siren’s dangerous voice fell for the first 
time upon your ear. You hesitated, you wellnigh 
yielded, but just then some mysterious influence 
— you scarce knew what — restrained you and held 
you back ; and that has since proved to have been 
the turning-point of your life. For 

“ There is a time, we know not when, 

A place, we know not where, 

That marks the destiny of men 
For glory or despair.” 


What is that mysterious power that restrains and 
saves ? No doubt the Hand divine, but extended, 
possibly, in answer to the mother’s prayers offered 
in her rural home for her loved boy, a stranger, 
inexperienced and exposed amid the perils of a 
great city. 

3. The prodigal is returning wiser than he went. 
Though he may have failed to learn in books and 
schools, he has learned in the school of experience 
lessons which have sunk too deep into his soul ever 
to be forgotten. It has been a hard tuition, it has 
cost him heavy blows of the rod, but its lessons 
can never be obliterated. It has taught him much 
in regard to the unsatisfactoriness of the world and 
in regard to sin’s deceitful illusions. He has 


THE PRODIGAL RETURNS HOME. 151 


learned by the teachings of privation and want that 
“ the way of the transgressor is hard.” Those 
“ day-dreams ” w r hich used to brighten the horizon 
have proved miserable mockeries and have vanished 
before the severe realities of experience. He is re- 
turning wiser. He will be able to tell old associates 
of his youth something that he knows and they do 
not know, and to warn them not to venture on the 
dangerous and uncertain seas where he has been so 
nearly wrecked. He is returning greatly humbled. 
He went out proud and self-sufficient : “ Oh yes ; 
I can make my way in the world, and do not 
need to be instructed and cautioned.” But he has 
changed his tone ; he has come down from his self- 
sufficiency and loftiness. He cannot complain that 
he has not had ample opportunity to make the ex- 
periment and show what he can do. He has had 
the money and the field ; he has not been restrained 
nor interfered with ; all that he could reasonably 
ask has been offered him ; and what now is the 
result? The result is a poor, wan, vanquished 
skeleton of a broken-down rouL This is the result 
of all that fine record he was to make for himself 
if only he could be released from the leading-strings 
of family government. This is what he has made 
of himself. But he is humbled now. He would 


152 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


willingly be led by any one who would only do him 
a little kindness. What a pupil he would now make 
in a school where common sense and every-day wis- 
dom are taught ! 

4. This leads us to remark that he is in a favor- 
able condition for being inducted into excellent ways 
and habits. The average young man who has not 
gone out into the world and tried it for himself as 
the prodigal did is apt to be full of confidence in 
his power to resist temptation or to extract the 
pleasure from the world’s good things without im- 
bibing the poison. Our young man is now in the 
position of having tried the experiment, and upon 
no limited scale, and he has illustrated the utter 
fallacy of his judgment and self-confidence, and 
has shown that all his fine pictures of what he 
could do have proved signal failures — so much so 
that he has, no doubt, lost all reliance on his own 
judgment. The ordeal has been severe, but it has 
brought the haughty spirit into a tractable mood. 
It has wrought its good work, until now the way- 
ward wanderer is docile as a little child. We have 
mentioned that he is retracing his steps. Retracing 
his steps literally he certainly is, for he is going 
home ; he is taking the back track over the old 
road ; and what he is doing literally is only the 


THE PRODIGAL RETURNS HOME. 153 


image and shadow of the blessed course he is tak- 
ing morally also. 

What a 

Contrast between the Two Journeys ! 

The young man came out fresh, hearty, vigorous, 
his youthful powers in perfection and in full play, 
fresh from associations adapted to enlighten and re- 
fine, well clothed, well mannered, well spoken, with 
plenty of money, possessed of all the elements of a 
young gentleman, worthy of respect and esteem — 
one who need find no difficulty in getting access to 
the most favored circles, to whom invitations would 
be freely sent and whose presence would be not only 
welcomed, but sought for. Yet now how changed ! 
Sunken cheeks, eyes staring, wasted and suffering, 
with tottering footsteps and wearing rags ! Poor 
relic ! 

Ah, friends ! sin, which destroys wherever it 
goes, has left its marks so deep that “ time’s effa- 
cing finger ” will never be able wholly to remove 
them. But when the sinner forsakes his evil ways 
there is reason for hope, and this sinner has now 
turned and is homeward bound. Possibly at the 
nearest seaport he finds a vessel sailing for his na- 
tive land. Possibly some sailor with the proverb- 


154 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN 


ially kind heart, learning of his pitiful condition 
and knowing who are his people, has compassion 
on him and gives him leave, by working his pas- 
sage, to sail with the crew to the port nearest his 
home. At any rate, we know that he reached his 
native country once more. 

The Ever-Memorable Meeting. 

Suppose we turn for a moment from the poor 
wanderer to the little circle of home friends into 
whose hearts he has driven the iron so deep. That 
absent, wayward boy — how month after month they 
watched for his return ! But time rolled on, and he 
came not. More than once — yes, many times, per- 
haps — when, as evening was closing in and an ap- 
proaching traveler was seen against the horizon, 
hope had whispered that this was he. But, disap- 
pointed time and again, “ hope deferred ” had made 
“the heart sick,” and as month followed month, 
and possibly year followed year, bringing no tidings, 
they gave up all expectation of seeing him. His 
name probably had ceased to be mentioned; the 
trouble was too deep for conversation. Yet each 
member of the household revolved the sad thoughts 
for himself, letting no day pass when the lost boy 
was out of mind. Probably the father often walked 


THE PRODIGAL RETURNS HOME. 155 


at eventide in the fields for meditation, and one 
evening a figure came in sight approaching over 
the hills. And such a sight is always an object 
of interest in a quiet neighborhood where there 
are but few passers-by. As the form drew nearer, 
though the aspect seemed uncouth, there was about 
it a strange something which held the father’s gaze. 
Could it be his own poor wandering boy returning to 
his home ? But that would be too good to be true. 
As the distance lessened hope whispered, It is he. It 
is ! It is the long-lost son ! No sooner does the 
thought reach the heart of the poor old father than 
he runs to meet the stranger, finds his hopes real- 
ized, falls on his son’s neck and bathes him with 
tears. 

The prodigal, in picturing to himself the meet- 
ing, had made up a speech — a humble and peni- 
tent confession of his evil conduct. He would say, 
“ Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy 
sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 
Make me as one of thy hired servants.” It was a 
fitting speech for such a one to make. That con- 
sciousness of his sin, that deep self-abasement — the 
feeling that he was “ not worthy ” — speak well as 
to his knowledge of himself and his ill-deserts, 
and show that a change true and thorough has 


156 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


been wrought. Now, in this meeting with his 
father, he begins his humble speech: “ Father, I 
have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and 
am no more worthy to be called thy son.” He had 
intended adding, u Make me as one of thy hired 
servants,” but he never got that out. Before he 
came to it the father’s arms were embracing him, 
he was smothered in kisses of love, pity aud joy 
and heartily forgiven for all his wrong-doings. 

Oh, the trueness and warmth of that welcome ! 
The old man had not a word of reproach — no, not 
one. How beautifully and touchingly this sets 
forth the full, free aud hearty pardon of the re- 
turning penitent sinner, and how it reminds us 
that “ there is joy in heaven over one sinner that 
repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just 
persons that need no repentance”! 

Supposing the family to have been in the old 
home, what a surprise and what a joy are in store 
for them ! Their attention is attracted by the fact 
that the father, returning from his evening walk, 
has some one with him — a peculiar-looking figure ; 
and as the old man enters — can it be ? — he shows 
to the household the long-lost boy ! Oh what joy ! 
what sunshine ! And what showers of tears ! what 
heartiness of welcome ! Not a word concerning the 


THE PRODIGAL RETURNS HOME. 157 


son’s bad conduct and the dreadful sorrow he has 
caused — no, not a word. 

The prodigal could not have believed it. This 
is what breaks him down most of all — that when 
he had looked for rebuke and reproach, expecting 
that his wicked course should be thrown up to him, 
and that he would be bitterly chided, as he knew he 
well deserved to be, all should be forgiven and for- 
gotten in a moment and he should be cordially re- 
stored to all the privileges and the honors of a son. 
This is amazing ; it is overpowering. 

So thorough and hearty is to be the restoration to 
favor that every vestige of the past is to be removed, 
and instead thereof marks of distinction and favor 
are shown to him. The wayfarer is in rags, but he 
is quickly clothed in a costly and beautiful vesture. 
“ Bring forth the best robe and put it on him,” says 
the father. Orientals then as now set much value 
on rich and expensive vestments, and the wealthy 
kept large supplies of them on hand. The choicest 
of these alone will meet the father’s idea of what is 
demanded by an occasion so notable in the family 
history. None but the richest and the best will 
suffice to clothe and decorate this long-lost son, 
given up and mourned as dead, but now restored 
as it were to life and here among them home again. 


158 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


Throw the rich robe around him and let it be seen 
that his improprieties and errors are not counted 
against him, but that he is reckoned as entitled to 
the very best — even as with that spotless garment 
of our Redeemer’s righteousness we, beloved, prodi- 
gals as we are, are recognized as restored to full 
favor, our sins no longer laid to our charge and 
our sonship and household privileges re-established 
and complete. 

The prodigal had purposed asking to be a hired 
servant, feeling that even this would be a favor far 
more than he had reason to expect, but the father 
dispels from his mind that idea by ordering shoes 
to be put on his feet, which could not be if he 
were to occupy a servant’s place, as servants never 
wore shoes. Then, as if by every significant act to 
set forth and establish the restoration complete and 
entire and in its fullest scope of privilege and 
favor, a ring — the badge of distinction, honor and 
confidence and the pledge and seal of future love 
— is placed upon his finger. As the bridal-ring 
signifies, seals and stands as a pledge of the new 
relations of the bride, so does this ring consummate 
the full and entire restoration to sonship and re-es- 
tablish his place in the rights and privileges of the 
household. 


THE PRODIGAL RETURNS HOME. 159 


Assuredly, the father is not making partial or 
halfway work ; his old loving heart is too full of 
love, thankfulness and rejoicing for that. What 
time or occasion could be more befitting for a 
festival ? Bring out the fatted calf and kill it. 
Call iu the neighbors ; let gladness spread all 
around. This must be a festive time ever to be 
remembered. The house so long darkened by the 
heavy shadow and burdened with sorrow now 
echoes with joy. The master bids all join the 
general gladness and mingle their joy with his: 
“We thought never to have seen him again here 
below, but here he stands in person. This, my son 
that was dead, is alive again ; he that was lost is 
found.” So one and all share the gladness and the 
glee. The rafters vibrate with the music, and the 
floors shake beneath the dancers’ feet. 

Thus happily concludes a parable whose preced- 
ing stages had been so replete with pain. I would 
remind you that there is One waiting for us in the 
Father’s house. We have wandered far away; if 
with good resolves and relying on the help of Him 
who has prepared at infinite cost the way for our 
return, and who is willing and ready to show us 
the way home, we return, we shall find that our 
Father will stretch out the arms of love to embrace 


160 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


us, and the angels shall shout for joy. For “ I say 
unto you that joy shall be in heaven over one sinner 
that repen teth, more than over ninety and nine just 
persons which need no repentance.” 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE PRODIGAL’S 

STORY. 


11 


“ Father , I have sinned against heaven , and in thy sight , and 
am no more worthy to be called thy son.” » 


Luke xv. 21. 


VIII. 

HIGHER LIGHT ON THE PRODIGAL'S STORY. 

TT7E have been tracing the course of a young 
man who, under a false idea of the pleasures 
of sin, threw off the tedium and restraints of home, 
broke the bonds of good morals and allowed him- 
self unlimited license, launching into every de- 
bauchery and sin and checked by nothing but lack 
of means and the pinch ings of abject want. Brought 
at last to his senses, he returns to the forsaken home. 
We have heard the confession of his sin and seen 
his deep repentance and his unexpectedly kind and 
loving reception and restoration to the father’s favor. 
The lessons taught ought to have impressed upon 
the minds and hearts of young men the folly and 
wickedness of seeking enjoyment in the ways of 
sin, the disappointing and ruinous nature of mere 
sensual pleasures, the imminent peril of hopeless 
wreck and ruin consequent upon launching into 
them, and the certainty that the path of purity and 
piety is the only path of safety. 


163 


164 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


It seems fitting to make a thoroughly spiritual 
and evangelical application, and to seek to impress 
the higher teachings that lie in this beautiful para- 
ble. Especially do I desire to impress the value 
of true religion, even though it had no other rec- 
ommendation than as a sure protection to young 
men against the numerous and formidable perils 
to which they are exposed. It is the only reliable 
insurance against the assaults of the world, the 
flesh and the devil. Even for the present world 
a genuine Christian faith is of priceless value be- 
cause of the moral safeguard 'it provides and the 
support it gives in the practice of purity and vir- 
tue. It is true that “ godliness is profitable for 
this life, as well as for that which is to come.” 
Many a young man has discovered, when too late, 
that the first fatal step in his downward course 
was when, almost persuaded to be a Christian, he 
failed to become altogether such. Had the better 
part then been chosen, the whole tenor of his sub- 
sequent life would have been changed : he would 
have been saved. 

We come now, therefore, to present for considera- 
tion the higher and spiritual significance of this 
parable, showing the intent of our Lord to set forth 
the disastrous state into which sin leads all men by 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE STORY. 165 


nature and the necessity for penitently and humbly 
returning unto God if sinners would find peace here 
or hereafter. 

Following the imagery of the parable let us 
notice at the outset 

1. The Father’s House. 

Primarily, this is “ the house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens,” the immediate dwelling- 
place of the Most High, where in unveiled glory 
God sits in majesty surrounded by the holy angels 
and other high intelligences, inhabitants of that un- 
fallen world, the seat of his throne and the centre 
of universal empire. But in the relation of our 
subject it is not that of which we shall speak as 
our Father’s house, but rather of the Church — the 
spiritual and invisible Church. All its members are 
children of the household, not by nature, but by 
grace, this being their peculiarity in God’s great 
family. Angels and other exalted and unfallen 
beings are his children by nature, his by creation, 
by reason of their pure and holy origin, which 
they have never forfeited. But his children in 
the Church — his spiritual Church — are not chil- 
dren by virtue of original creation : they are all 
adopted children. By nature estranged in sin and 


166 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


alienated, by grace they have been brought back and 
received into the loving arms of the Father, and are 
enjoying all the privileges of children. 

Admirable are the arrangements in this spiritual 
house. All that heart could wish is here — ample 
provision for every want, present or prospective, 
for time or for eternity, abundant comforts, the 
best of company and absolute safety ; for “ none,” 
says the Master of the house, “ shall ever be able 
to pluck them out of my hand.” They are the 
redeemed of God in heaven and upon earth ; they 
read their “ title clear to mansions in the skies,” 
and are to enjoy the companionship of the angels 
and of the Mite of the universe throughout the 
everlasting ages. What a household is this! 
What can be compared to our Father’s house, 
the home of all his loving children, redeemed 
by grace? 

2. But by nature all of us are 

Wanderers from the Father’s House. 

Strange that we should turn our backs upon such 
a home. Strange, when the home is so fair, so at- 
tractive, so well provided — indeed, all that could 
possibly be asked — that any should desire to leave 
it and make their abode elsewhere. But, unfortu- 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE STORY. 167 


nately, it is characteristic of our race that there is 
an antipathy to the spirit and regimen of this home. 
There have come upon those who should be sons a 
want of sympathy in its employments and enjoy- 
ments and an indisposition to be subjected to the 
will and authority of its great Head. Their lan- 
guage is, “ We will not have this man to reign over 
us.” What he has appointed as best for their spirit- 
ual life and welfare, essential to the development of 
their highest interests for this world and for eternity, 
is not congenial to their ideas and tastes ; so that 
they all with one accord depart from the household 
and go far away, seeking enjoyments and satisfac- 
tions elsewhere. “All we like sheep have gone 
astray.” We do not by nature like God’s way, 
and the language of our heart, if not of our lips, is, 
“ Depart from us ; we desire not the knowledge of 
thy ways;” and we might add, “ If thou dost not 
depart from us, we will depart from thee.” 

Certain it is that this is the prevailing spirit 
and characteristic of our race. We know full well, 
when the child is born, that as soon as it comes 
to discern good and evil it will present the same 
characteristic traits — the infirmities and sins of our 
common nature. We have just as much assurance 
of that as that the child will grow in stature or in 


168 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


knowledge. We understand so well this character- 
istic of our race that if some time a ship far off in 
unknown seas could discover a new continent — could 
such a thing be supposable — it would not be re- 
garded as necessary to go among the inhabitants 
to ascertain their moral type. We would feel 
assured, before setting foot on land, that they were 
erring, sinful creatures as certainly as that they 
were human beings. It is characteristic. 

Yes, we have all left the Father’s house. Abun- 
dant are the testimonies. What mean those penal 
laws upon our statute-books? - They are to restrain 
men from doing evil. What are yonder strong 
walls and grated windows? To inflict penalties 
upon evil-doers. Why do these uniformed officials 
patrol our streets by day and through the livelong 
night ? Why are there reformatory societies ? Why 
Sunday-schools and churches? Why so much pa- 
rental solicitude as to what children will be in after 
years ? Why does the mother, when the boy leaves 
home for college, quietly and prayerfully deposit in 
his trunk a Bible with the inscription of love, “A 
Mother’s Gift ” ? What is the reason ? Is it not 
because she recognizes that her son is not an angel 
or an unfallen being, because she knows he is falli- 
ble, tainted with the virus which affects us all, be- 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE STORY. 169 


cause in the midst of the fresh temptations to which 
he may be exposed, untutored and inexperienced as 
he is in life’s perils, she wishes him to have God’s 
word, urged and enforced with the tenderness of 
a mother’s love, as his safeguard and companion ? 
Yes, on every hand — within, too, as well as with- 
out — are the testimonies to our fallen estate. We 
are all wanderers, and, notwithstanding the many 
moral restraints and the multiplied agencies for 
spiritual good, we will go astray. 

3. The Sinner’s Substance is Squandered. 

As it was with the prodigal, so it is with every 
sinner — sometimes in one way, sometimes in other 
ways; when not in vicious and immoral indul- 
gences, in methods as real and as effective in es- 
tranging from the Father’s house. 

Take that man who thinks himself a model of 
good morals and propriety, upright and honest, 
sterling in integrity, yet even he fails to live for 
a good higher than this present world. Whatever 
else he may aim at, his aspirations never ascend to 
their divine source. They are of the earth, earthy, 
not heavenly and godly, not spiritual and divine. 
However well he may acquit himself after the 
'manner of men in regard to the responsibilities 


170 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


and obligations of this present life, when it conies 
to the higher and nobler life for which he is capa- 
citated he fails to reach that even as to its begin- 
nings; so that he has taken the invaluable sub- 
stance with which almighty God the Father has 
endowed him, and is squandering it upon the things 
that perish. 

Suppose an angel should come to this world from 
the high realms where the moral nature is perfect, 
where all the capacities expand as freely as men 
breathe the air, where the serenest and purest pleas- 
ures come as a thing of nature, where the soul stands 
monarch far above all groveling things of sin and 
sense, beautiful copy of the great Creator, having 
never erred, never been tainted by one dark spot ; 
what, think you, would be the impressions of the 
angel-visitor on seeing beings created like him- 
self in the image of God, and with moral and 
spiritual capacities like in some measure to his 
own, instead of aspiring upward to the Father for 
higher converse, purposely shunning it and persist- 
ently seeking after groveling objects such as are 
only provisional and temporary in their purpose 
and were never designed for the soul’s chief good ? 
Ah, sirs, we squander our good things. We can- 
not make mock at the prodigal or throw dirt at 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE STORY. 171 


him until we have cleansed our own garments and 
made our own record pure. 

Substance ? What substance has the Father not 
given us ? Substance ? Spiritual, impalpable sub- 
stance, indeed, but substance capable of thought, 
capable of saying, “ This is right ” or “ This is 
wrong,” capable of high conceptions for good or 
groveling and damning conceptions for evil, capable 
of moving and moulding others to lofty aims and 
glorious achievements or for wallowing in the mire ; 
substance which can outlive these mortal bodies 
when dust has turned to dust and ashes to ashes, 
and is capable of soaring beyond the stars and 
mounting up to God who gave it, and yet sub- 
stance so squandered and misspent that its main 
thought is, u What shall I eat, what shall I drink 
and wherewithal shall I be clothed ? How can I 
make most profit out of my neighbor ? How can 
I pile up most gain ? How can I climb the heights 
of ambition and make a name for myself? How 
can I do this ?” Oh how he squanders his precious 
substance ! Lips made to sing God’s praise, and 
heart made to waft its incense high toward heaven, 
trammeled and fettered in these poor earthly things ! 
Intellect, culture, capacity, influence, fascinations of 
manner, — all this God-bestowed “ substance” per- 


172 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


verted and prostituted to things of the earth 
earthy ! 

A father naturally wishes his son to do well. 
When a father parts with his son, sending him to 
fill a situation he has secured for him or to enter 
mercantile life or to study a profession, among 
other things he says to him, “ Now, my son, try 
to make something of yourself. You have good 
abilities; don’t throw them away. Try to make 
something of yourself.” Suppose God our heav- 
enly Father had spoken to you personally words of 
instruction ; would he not have said substantially 
that — “ Try to make something of yourself” ? Oh 
how sad the dereliction, the failure as to the high 
end of life, should you make nothing of yourself 
as regards the spiritual and the immortal ! His 
precious gifts, instead of being elevated to the high 
place for which they were designed — that you might 
be the sons of God in glory for ever — squandered 
on the lusts of money, the lusts of the flesh, the 
pride of life, ambition for place and power and the 
perishing things of a perishing world, consumed on 
something else, on anything else than on God and 
godly things ! How true the language of the famil- 
iar old hymn, 

“Like brutes we live, like brutes we die”! 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE STORY. 173 


What might we have been ? Ah ! that will be 
the thought when the scene has changed from earth, 
when the curtain which bounds time shall have been 
uplifted and the light of eternity let in. How many 
will ponder that question, and oh how solemnly, 
u What might I have been ?” What might I not 
have been ! “ I might have been a sinner saved ; 

I might have been a trophy of redeeming love, a 
ransomed spirit in the realms of everlasting light 
and life ; I might have been where there is fullness 
of joy and where there are pleasures for evermore. 
But all is squandered beyond recall !” The pre- 
cious immortal substance is squandered with a hand 
that knows no restraint and upon utterly unworthy 
if not riotous living ! 

4. All who wander from God like the prodigal 
are 

In a Condition of Want. 

The restlessness and the dissatisfaction of the de- 
votees of the world are proverbial. When did you 
ever see one who could say, “ I am perfectly satis- 
fied”? Some one may reply, “ I have.” Well, so 
have I, if you mean you have seen those who have 
said so. I have seen them when they said, “ I am 
perfectly satisfied,” but it was easy to see they were 
not satisfied ; for when the theme was opened up, 


174 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


you could see that here and there and on every 
hand there were desires and aims they would gladly 
have realized, but they knew it to be impossible. 
With nothing beyond this world’s good, it is not 
possible that the human soul can be satisfied, for the 
reason that the immortal cannot be satisfied with the 
perishing. 

The most illustrious of Roman emperors, when 
the empire was at the acme of its glory, with all 
that earth could give at his beck and call to minister 
to his desires — the most favored of all the sons of 
men — when asked, “ What is needful, sire, to render 
your condition absolute perfection — all you could 
desire?” replied, “Continuance ” He knew it could 
not last. The immortal nature must have immortal 
food. The perishing things of this world were not 
designed even to satisfy the perishing creatures of 
this world. The cry virtually from every soul in 
its wanderings from God is, “Who will show us 
any good?” 

Nothing does the unregenerate world need so 
much as a real, substantial, unfailing good. We 
talk of the great discoveries of our day, and some 
— perhaps many — are ambitious to become dis- 
coverers or inventors, that thereby they may win 
a great fame or a great fortune. Whoever can dis- 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE STORY . 175 


cover a really permanent, satisfying good for the 
human soul in mere earthly things would pile 
up the largest fortune ever made. There would 
be orders for it beyond the possibility of supply. 
The stock in the company would bring any price. 
All the Croesuses who hold the great fortunes of 
the world would bid high for it. How true that 
the eager, restless worldling, satiated at the ban- 
quets of lust, is still perishing with hunger ! How 
certain that none who stop short of gospel grace 
can ever realize the beatitude, “ Blessed are they 
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness ; for 
they shall be filled ” — that real and true satisfaction 
is for such only as hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness ! Certain it is that to every soul this hun- 
ger, unless appeased, must bring death — death to 
happiness, death to hope, death to all real, enduring 
good, death to the immortal soul ; unless some- 
thing be done, the poor wanderer is absolutely cer- 
tain to perish with hunger. 

5. Consider 

The Grand Turning-Point 

— the sinner coming to himself. Like the poor 
prodigal, he is brought down by necessity, by 
want, by suffering, by providences of God that 


176 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


have baffled and disappointed him and blasted his 
prospects and hopes. His thought of life is like 
that of Edmund Burke, who amid the bright 
honors of his ambition in the Parliament of Eng- 
land was informed of the death of his beloved and 
only son, and exclaimed, “ What shadows we are ! 
what shadows we pursue!” How in an instant 
that stroke disenchanted the brilliant orator as to 
the world’s ambitions and the world’s rewards ! 
It pleases God sometimes to bring men to their 
senses by thus crushing their earthly hopes and 
letting them discover for themselves that these 
seeming good things are but phantoms treacherous 
and deceitful, that “ all that’s bright must fade,” 
and that what seems in anticipation so supremely a 
thing to be desired is no sooner grasped than, like 
Sodom’s apples, it turns to ashes. Worldlings not 
unfrequently learn from sad and bitter experience 
the vanity of the world, the utter unsatisfactoriness 
of all things here below, and are thus by a hard 
and wellnigh overwhelming discipline brought to 
their senses. 

All men, indeed, in their natural condition are 
out of their senses. They see things reversed ; they 
see eternal things distant, insignificant, obscure, un- 
attractive, unimpressive, and they see temporal 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE STORY. 177 

things attractive, important, engrossing and swollen 
in magnitude until they fill the whole horizon. 
The man’s moral and immortal nature is in a dis- 
torted, morbid, diseased condition. But when these 
fallacies and phantoms are dispelled, when sad and 
sorrowful experience, when disappointment, misfor- 
tune and disaster, or when the light of God’s Spirit 
let into the soul, shows that the life has been an 
illusion, we learn that the world is vanity, that it 
can “ never give the bliss for which we sigh,” that 
the little we get is but for a little while, that at 
best we must soon leave it and go down to the 
grave, submitting to the decree, “ Naked came I 
into the world, and naked must I go out of it. 
Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” 

Are not men insane, putting money, real-estate, 
stocks, pleasures, trifles, above the immortal soul ? 
Not only doing that, but attempting a most fatal 
experiment — that of trying and testing for them- 
selves the question what it shall profit a man if he 
shall gain the world and lose his soul ? But, hap- 
pily, the prodigal is disenchanted. Reflection comes; 
he begins to change his views. Serious convictions 
arise that this kind of life has been a mistake — not 
only that it has been a mistake, but that it has been 
a sin ; and a sin not only against God, but against 
12 


178 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


his own soul — a sin against Heaven and against his 
eternal welfare. Under the influence of these medi- 
tations, so just and so true, and under the convic- 
tions of conscience, he at last concludes and deter- 
mines to leave the far-off land and seek a better 
portion. 

6. Let us look, then, at 

The Happy Decision. 

“ I will arise and go to my Father.” I have been a 
wanderer, but I will wander no more. I have gone, 
alas ! too far astray, but by God’s grace I will re- 
turn. How much is involved in those three words, 
“ I will arise ” ! One who had just been brought 
back from far-off paths of sin said to me that 
after groping and struggling for days without find- 
ing pardon and peace, it all at once occurred to him 
that the thing for him to do was to go to Jesus, and 
that instantly something within him said, “ I will.” 
From that moment he felt like another man, and 
ever since his purposes and his experiences have 
been for the Lord. 

But how many stop before they reach this point ! 
How many, though they have learned the unsatis- 
factoriness of the world and the deceitfulness of sin, 
still are not prepared to take the decisive step of 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE STORY. 179 


the prodigal, saying, “ I will arise and go to my 
Father ” ! They still linger in the far-off land ; they 
still refuse to make an effort to escape, and some- 
times they perish with the blessed possibility only 
almost realized. One thing, therefore, we should 
lay to heart among the teachings of this parable — 
the imperative importance, when an impenitent 
sinner is impressed with the error of his ways, 
that he should at once resolve to renounce his sin- 
ful state and get out of it, saying, “ I will arise.” 
Then instantly the resolve should be carried out. 
The struggle may be severe, but the victory will be 
great. When the sins have been confessed, when 
the soul has been truly humbled, when the resolu- 
tion and the purpose to seek the favor of God have 
been fixed, the sinner has passed the turning-point 
and begun the journey which leads to righteousness, 
peace and everlasting life. 

The prodigal will arise, and he will not seek to 
make any palliation of his course ; he will make no 
attempt to smooth matters over or to put upon his 
conduct a better face than it deserves. He will 
meet the case squarely, with all its seriousness and 
aggravations, and will confess judgment. He will 
i( make a clean breast of it,” keeping back nothing. 
He will acknowledge his sin: “ Father, I have 


180 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


sinned. I have sinned against heaven and in thy 
sight, and, more than that, I am not worthy to be 
restored to favor ; I do not deserve to be called thy 
son. Give me only a servant’s place ; put me into 
the lowliest position — I am unworthy of any other. 
Only let me come back and share thy presence, 
hear thy words and see thy face; no matter how 
abject may be my place, it will be all I ask, and 
far more than I deserve. 

“ Show pity, Lord ; O Lord, forgive ; 

Let a repenting rebel live: 

Are not thy mercies large and free ? 

May not a sinner trust in thee? 

“ My sins are great, but can’t surpass 

The power and glory of thy grace; 

Great God, thy mercy hath no bound ; 

So let thy pard’ning love be found.” 

Yes, this is the spirit of the prodigal’s return to 
the Father’s house, and rest assured it is a spirit 
which will be recognized and will find welcome. 
“ To this man will I look,” saith the Lord, “ to 
him that is of a broken and a contrite heart, and 
that trembleth at my word.” 

7. Consider 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE STORY. 181 


The Sinner’s Cordial Reception. 

We read in this parable of the elder brother in 
the old home and that he was upright and faithful, 
but we do not read that he ever expressed any spe- 
cial concern for his long-lost brother or that he 
ever suggested sending out to search for him. The 
prodigal was left to find his way back — if he should 
ever think of returning — as best he could. How 
discouraging the condition of the poor creature ! 
How great his uncertainty as to his reception — 
whether he would not be chided, whether he would 
not have his bad conduct flung in his face, whether 
the home people would not mock at him and turn 
away, telling him he had made his bed and he must 
lie upon it — that he had chosen to receive his inherit- 
ance in advance and he must stand by his decision. 
The prospects were not cheering ; there was no en- 
couragement to the prodigal. 

But there is encouragement abundant to such 
prodigals as we are, for in our Father’s house on 
high there is an Elder Brother, and one who not 
only pities us, but himself comes out to seek and 
find us, risking every peril and sacrifice — indeed, 
actually offering up his own life — to secure our safe 
and welcome return. “ Lo, I come, says he ; in the 


182 


HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. 


volume of the book it is written of me; I delight to 
do thy will, O God ;” and that “ will ” was that he 
should come to this world of prodigals, live among 
them, set them an example, teach them, labor with 
them, determine to spare nothing to restore them, 
even to sacrifice life if necessary. And this is what 
he did. He came, he suffered, he died. “ He gave 
his life a ransom for many.” How vast our advan- 
tage over the prodigal, God by his Son — yes, and 
by his Holy Spirit too — calling us back, drawing 
us with the cords of love, following us, bearing 
with our infirmities, encouraging and cheering us, 
and never wearying ! 

Should we not return ? Rest assured there will 
be a welcome. See the joy — the joy even in heav- 
en itself. Yes, the penitent sinner comes — comes 
self-condemned and feeling that he deserves no 
favor ; but see the joy that awaits him. He comes. 
He hears the gentle invitation, “ Come unto me, all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest.” He comes. He finds the hand marked 
with the wound-prints made for guilty sinners 
stretched out to grasp his poor trembling hand ; 
he finds an almighty arm to support him ; he finds 
a heavenly light shining into his hitherto-darkened 
miud ; he finds all sense of condemnation removed ; 


HIGHER LIGHT ON THE STORY. 183 


he finds the burden of unpardoned sin uplifted ; he 
finds a sweet peace stealing through his hitherto 
troubled soul, and he hears the welcome, never-to- 
be-forgotten words, “ Thy sins which are many are 
all forgiven thee.” Joy ! joy for ever ! He that 
was dead is made alive ; he that was lost is 
found ! 


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